


Flash Point

by Lunar_Alpha_Wolf (smurr79)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Enchantress Hermione Granger, F/F, F/M, First time writing, Fluff, Healer Ron Weasley, Investigator Luna Lovegood, No Bashing, Polyamory, Reasonable adults, Slow Burn, Warrior Poet Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:41:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 106,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25421059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smurr79/pseuds/Lunar_Alpha_Wolf
Summary: The end of their third year taught the trio one very important lesson, if they were going to survive to see their graduation then they were going to need to take matters into their own hands. H/Hr/L, Ron/?
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Luna Lovegood/Harry Potter, Ron Weasley/Undecided
Comments: 17
Kudos: 45





	1. First Spark

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! This is a story I'm crossposting from Fanfiction.net, and I'll be posting a chapter every day until it's caught up (about 8 chapters atm). This is my first piece of fiction I've written in an extremely long time so I hope you'll bear with my mistakes and shoddy writing.  
> Hope you enjoy!

Hermione couldn't sleep.

That was hardly surprising though considering how terrifying the last 6 hours had been. Honestly between Flying on a Hippogriff, running from a Werewolf and nearly having her soul devoured by Dementors she'd be lucky if she slept tomorrow night either. It was almost funny, she'd spent so much time before Hogwarts in libraries and her bedroom reading about magical adventures. There wasn't much else for a lonely young girl who couldn't quite figure out how to make friends to do. Now here she was, a witch in a magic castle going on the sort of adventures she'd been reading about since she could hold a book.

It wasn't just clammy fingers and gaping scabbed over mouths that kept her up though, the soft murmur of voices was also playing its part. She let her eyes flutter open slightly, peeking through her eyelashes at her friends. Sitting up in the bed across from hers, the serious look on his face barely highlighted by candlelight was Ron. On the other side of that bed Harry sat sprawled in a visitor's chair, his wand hanging loosely from the tips of his fingers and a grim cast to his features.

Ron suddenly leant back, looking up the ceiling, "You can't beat yourself up over maybe's Harry, you cast the spell in the end"

Harry snorted softly "You weren't there, the only reason I managed it was because I knew I'd done it before." His mouth twisted like he'd eaten something sour and his voice was matched "What use am I if the only way I can protect my friends is when I get a free do over?"

"I know I wasn't there" Ron started bitterly, but was quickly cut off.

"I didn't me-" Harry began quickly, but stopped as Ron raised his hand.

"I know you didn't, but I do" He started, looking at the ceiling like it would answer his questions. "I should have been able to do something"

Hermione almost roused herself at that, ready to firmly tell both boys to knock it off and get a hold of themselves. They both had their strengths and they both meant the world to her, so why did it matter if they weren't perfect? But she managed to restrain herself, it truly did sound like they both needed this, and she'd been trying to work on not butting her nose into every little thing.

"Ron" Harry began, looking slightly lost "We're only 13, none of us should have to be capable of stuff like this"

Ron shook his head violently "No, that might have been an excuse last year" A brief flash of a much darker look crossed his face "But I started this year knowing a madman was after my best friend and I did nothing but play buggering chess and half ass my classes" Ron started to get slightly louder, his ears turning red at the tips as he worked up "Five older bloody brothers who were always getting hurt and I couldn't even be bothered to remember a simple blasted healing charm I've seen mum use a thousand times!"

"If you're beating yourself up over that, what does that make me" The look of self loathing on his face made Hermione's chest ache. "Boy-who-wouldn't-bloody-die and what do I do this year when I think the man who betrayed my parents is coming for me?" Harry's eyes flashed in the candlelight and a tear of frustration leaked from the corner of his eyes. "I almost die two years in a row, my friends almost die as well and this year I know what's coming. Still, the only spell I learn is one to drive off Dementors; the one thing we thought was keeping us safe in this school because I kept bloody fainting"

A quiet settled between the two boys, heavy with dark feelings and awkward tension. For a moment it seemed it would pass, Ron would make a joke or Harry would say something self deprecating and life would move on. Thankfully, Hermione was eavesdropping.

"You're both idiots" Hermione's lighter voice cutting through the suddenly awkward silence.

Both young men turned bright red as they made eye contact with an obviously awake Hermione. Before they could start spluttering or asking when she'd woken she shushed them and sat up. She shivered slightly when her bare feet touched the cold flagon stone floor but shuffled over to them anyway, a sheet draped over her. Harry jumped to his feet and dragged the spare chair next to him around the bed, depositing it on the opposite side before returning just as fast.

"Thank you" she murmured very carefully ignoring the warm feeling in her chest when she caught his eyes and he looked away in embarrassment.

"You're both so worried about what you didn't do, but you're being too hard on yourselves" She didn't really feel like smiling, but she pushed one up anyway, though it was a little tremulous. "Harry, you want to protect us, to feel like you can fight back right?"

Harry nodded, his blush receding and a more serious look overcoming him.

"Then why not start now? Flitwick used to be a dueling champion, what's stopping you from asking him for help?" A thoughtful look crossed his face and he leant back in his chair while she continued "And if he won't help we'll do it ourselves, I'm sure there's some books on magical combat in the library, we can practice in a spare classroom or something"

Harry smiled appreciatively at her and looked down at his lap, his eyes darting left and right while he considered her words. Her smile became a little more genuine and she turned to Ron.

"Ron" She started gently, and he winced, like he was expecting her to berate him about his homework.

"Why not healing charms?" She asked, getting a puzzled look but she was already fleshing out her idea, looking blankly at the bedspread.

"You mentioned healing charms, and I think that's brilliant idea. If we keep getting into stuff like tonight one of us knowing how to heal would be invaluable but no offense" She gave Harry an apologetic glance. "Harry doesn't exactly have the gentle touch needed"

Harry puffed up in imagined offense, earning a giggle from Hermione and a huff of laughter from Ron.

"And to be honest, I've looked at it before and...well to be honest I don't think I have the temperament. Magical healing is apparently a lot more feeling and power than a muggle Doctor" She continued, cutting him off as he opened his mouth to interject. "Maybe you aren't the best student" A poked out tongue was her reward for that "But I can't imagine anything inspiring you to work hard more than maybe saving our, or your life someday"

Ron joined Harry in silent contemplation at that, gently nodding in agreement. He had trouble focusing on schoolwork at the best of times, but the image of a tearful Harry bleeding out in his arms because he couldn't cast a spell was a hell of a motivator.

"Plus, none of your brothers are any good at healing" She finished impishly, giving him a wide smirk.

Ron snorted once, then broke out into chuckles, joined quickly by Harry and finally by a slightly teary eyed Hermione. After a few minutes of quiet laughter they all came down to earth, sharing a warm look between them.

"What about you" Harry suddenly blurted out, and realizing how bad that sounded quickly started to backtrack. "Not that you need anything to focus on, or that you're not good at anything or-I'll just stop" He trailed off, looking mildly alarmed.

Hermione arched an eyebrow in faux haughtiness and put on a snooty tone. "Yes not to say I'm anything less than perfe-eep!" ducking a pillow Ron swung halfheartedly in her direction. Then speaking more seriously. "I actually already have something I'll be making my focus next year, once I drop most of these extra classes"

"Runes is just so fascinating and they have so many useful applications! Did you know with the right combination of ancient Norse runes you can make an airtight box as cold as a modern fridge, permanently! And all it takes is a precise carving technique, correct placement of the runes on the box and a decently powerful burst of magic to initially charge the spell?" Hermione finished her spiel slightly breathless and giddy. Before withdrawing into herself, expecting the usual blank stares she got from her friends when she went off on an academic tangent.

To her pleasant surprise there was less of that than expected, they both looked slightly amused at her enthusiasm but just as intrigued with what she was saying. The look of fondness on Harry's face in particular making her cheeks heat up slightly.

"So that's the plan" Harry stood suddenly, stepping right to the edge of the bed, Hermione unconsciously matching him. "I'll talk to Flitwick tomorrow" He said clearly, a steely look in his eyes.

Ron's broad smile could have lit the great Hall

"I'll ask Pomfrey about starting to learn healing tomorrow when she checks in, see if she can tell me were to start. I'm tired of my friends and family getting hurt and not being able to do anything"

Hermione gave her two friends a proud smile.

"I'll talk to McGonagall tomorrow about dropping the extra classes, and to Professor Vector about any extra learning resources she recommends" Hermione's face dropped slightly, but she pushed on. "We can't afford to be waste our time, or be one trick ponies though, not if nonsense like tonight is going to keep happening. You can't keep easy classes like divination, and I can't keep wasting my time with interesting but useless things like muggle studies"

Harry and Ron both gave her a fondly exasperated look "Full plan tomorrow Hermione" Harry said, his smile taking the edge off his words.

"Right" Her cheeks pinked. "Ancient runes and Spell research"

A massive yawn burst out suddenly from Ron, followed swiftly by Harry and Hermione. The three shared a warm look before Harry and Hermione turned back to their beds.

"Night guys" Ron mumbled, finally laying down properly, careful not to jostle his leg.

"Mmmhmm" Hermione responded, standing and shuffling back to her bed, sliding under the covers. A small smile on her lips as she drifted off. The sight of Harry standing tall against the swirling nightmare of the Dementors pushing the nightmares back for now.

"Sweet Dreams" Harry Whispered, pausing momentarily at the great arched window. The Moon seemed to huge from here, and If he squinted he could almost see Sirius and Buckbeak silhouetted in the sky. He shook himself and slid under the blankets. He had things to do tomorrow, and he had a feeling he'd need his rest.

When Ron woke late the next morning he was alone. He glanced over at Harry and Hermione's ill made hospital beds with consternation before noticing a folded piece of parchment standing on his bedside.

/Gone for breakfast, we'll bring you some bacon/

Stood out in Harry's usual jagged writing in black ink.

'Well' Ron thought, 'That makes this easier at least' Watching madam Pomfrey bustle over with a tray of potions.

"Good morning Mr. Weasley" She said, a severe look on her face, "I hope your conversation with Mr Potter and Miss Granger didn't keep you from getting proper rest last night"

Ron flushed and sunk down into his bed a little.

"You heard that!?" He whisper shouted, sounding mortified.

A small smile and shake of her head was his only answer, as she stuffed an electric blue potion into his hands.

"Drink this now, you'll get another dose after lunch and we'll repeat that until the weekend, you'll need crutches in the meantime" She continued as if he hadn't spoken. "It's going to make you quite drowsy, but it will ensure you don't feel any pain while this" She held up a vial of sickly brown sludge "Re-sets the break in your Fibula and heals the fracture in your Tibia. Lastly" At this she pulled the leg of his blanket aside to show his broken leg, ignoring his squawk of protest. "We'll be removing the bandage wrap and immobilising it with a cast for the next few days so you don't move it while the potions do their work"

Ron gave the nurse an odd look, wondering why she was bothering to explain his treatment. Madame Pomfrey was notoriously short with her patients, often exasperated with how many different ways magical teenagers could hurt themselves and each other. He wasn't complaining though, if she'd suddenly decided to explain her thoughts it gave him a perfect in to test out her reaction to his interest in healing.

"Madame Pomfrey?" He asked carefully, getting a glance and then a pointed look at the blue potion. He downed it quickly, wincing when a buzzing feeling spread from his stomach to the tips of his toes. She held the brown vial up to him and he downed it as quickly as possible.

She nodded quickly, then gave him an expectant look "Good, now what was your question?"

"Well..." He started, taking a long moment to prepare his thoughts. "You mentioned using a cast to immobilise my leg, wouldn't it be easier to just freeze it in place with a spell?"

Her lips quirked up slightly and she stopped checking the potions left on her tray.

"Why do you think we'd use a non magical cast Mr Weasley?"

He pondered for a minute, wracking his brain for half remembered lectures from his mother when one of his brothers inevitably broke something.

"Would the magic of the spell interfere with the potions effect somehow?" He asked, his mind instantly thinking of the look on Snape's face when Seamus had tried to cast a colour changing charm on his potion to make it look more like the board said it should.

Madam Pomfrey gave him an approving smile and turned to face him fully.

"That's half right, if you immobilize a body part by magic while a bone is being set by potion, the bone almost never sets correctly. Merlin knows how many students I've seen over the years who thought they were clever enough to not need a healer after some hi-jinks or another. Now why do you think a non magical cast might be better than a much more reliably stable immobilizing charm Mr. Weasley?"

Ron looked up at the far side of the room, his eyes darting back and forth as he thought carefully about his answer. He'd bet his last Knut this was some sort of test, and Merlin damn it he was passing.

"Is it because the spell somehow changes the effect of the potion?" He started, stopping suddenly at the Healers neutral expression. "If not that than..."

Madame Pomfrey gave a small nod, but otherwise let him continue.

"How does an immobilizing spell actually work on a body part anyway?" He mused, thinking out loud while he worked through it. "Does it...Does it hold the leg in an unnatural position, and make the bones set wrong?"

"Are you asking me, or telling me Mr. Weasley?"

He hesitated, but nodded once firmly.

"Telling Madame, The immobilizing spell must hold the leg too firmly in place, and the bone sets wrong"

"Well that's an Acceptable answer considering I doubt you've thought twice about healing until last night. You missed a rather important part about why being too immobile causes the bone to set wrong" She said "But it was a decently thought out answer, would you like to try for an exceeds Mr. Weasley?"

Ron nodded eagerly, feeling a tinge of apprehension at the thought he might have missed his shot before he even asked her..

"Very well, why then Mr. Weasley has no one simply created a spell that can take the place of the cast, or simply set a bone and be done with it, after all we've been breaking bones for millennia, and the concept of a cast is only a 150 years old at best, and a muggle invention at that. We magicals can be a little slow to change at times, but we've always been miraculous healers compared to muggles"

Ron frowned thoughtfully, that was a very good point. Thousands of years of magical knowledge and learning and it still took nearly a week in an itchy cast you couldn't cast magic on to heal a simple broken bone?

'Is there some kind of magical law I don't know about or something?' He thought ruefully 'Now would be an excellent time to have Hermione here'

That thought made him shake himself and scowl. He did not need to run to Hermione for answers every time things got hard. He had decided on this role and he was bloody well going to do it right. Not just make the same mistake of letting her do his thinking for him over and over like some dumb...kid.

His jaw dropped "It's to mess with us!?" He asked incredulously, getting a simultaneously proud and rather devious look back. "We have to sit in a hospital bed with nothing to do but our homework for a week to teach us a lesson!?"

A rather dry laugh was his response. "And that's an outstanding Mr. Weasley, congratulations"

Ron leant back heavily in his bed "Wow, so there is a spell then?"

"Of course, it's a fairly complicated charm that involves a rather thorough knowledge of the human body but any healer worth their salt could cast it"

"And you don't want a bunch of cocky teenagers who think they're invincible thinking they can break themselves over and over and it'll all be fixed in a jiffy, right?" Ron asked, already knowing the answer

"Correct, being a Healer at a Hospital or to a private client is about clean, professional and thorough healing. Being a school healer is that, plus also making sure you rowdy pile of lunatics don't kill yourselves thinking any injury is just a few fancy words away from being fixed." Nurse Pomfrey gave him a sour look. "Truthfully nearly any damage a student takes here would be remarkably easy to fix for any qualified healer, barring some of the potion accidents and the occasional duel gotten out of hand. But if we taught the students that lesson then let them out into the real world where there isn't a healer right on hand...Well I might be able to fix a severed hand back on to the wrist in a few moments. the average wizard or witch would bleed out before they got to help"

Ron was nodding along, a serious cast to his features, Freckles stretched across pale skin as he frowned.

"The hard part of being a Healer isn't fixing simple injuries, cuts, bruises and the like" Pomfrey continued to lecture. "It's 3 fold, learning about the human body, no healing charm in the world will work completely right if you aren't sure, at least in a general sense, what you want it to do and know why you want to do it. Secondly is Identifying symptoms, and this is something you'll never stop learning. I've been here over 20 years and I still see new injuries every month, knowing how to research and where to look for answers is more important that knowing all the answers for that though"

She paused and Ron felt like sinking into the floor. After his talk with Hermione and Harry last night, and the encouraging words from the healer this morning he'd really thought he was on the right track. But it turns out here was another thing Hermione would have done a much better job with, she could research and study in her sleep and he, well unless it was interesting to him books just put him to sleep.

"Finally" She continued "And most importantly by far. You have to be passionate about healing, you have to want your patient to get better, it's no lie to say a half trained mediwitch with a barely remembered healing spell who actually cares about their patient is more useful than 10 magical researchers who could recite 10 textbooks by rote"

The Nurse stopped and looked Ron square in the eyes.

"Miss Granger was right last night; she would make a rather poor healer. Fascination with how an injury is fixed would never suffice to power any truly strong healing magic"

Ron went to interrupt in her defense, but was cut off.

"Even if she did care for the patient" Nurse Pomfrey glared at him briefly for trying to interrupt. "It takes a certain kind of single mindedness to heal with magic. Focus and Knowledge yes, but Love and Will to see them healed is the real difference between a Researcher and a Healer Mr. Weasley"

"Now, I believe you had a question for me" Her voice was quieter now, and it felt like the room was as hot as a furnace. Ron swallowed thickly and realized this was it, she had explained what was required to do what he'd promised and this was her olive branch.

"Please, teach me how to heal"

A wide smile split Pomfrey's face, and the room suddenly felt like it had shrunk back to normal size and temperature, a cool breeze flowing in from the window beside him.

"You'll have to pass a small test first. If you do though, it would be my pleasure"

Walking away from the hospital wing after delivering Ron's Irresponsibly large bacon sandwich was an odd experience for Hermione. It was heartening that Ron clearly already made some progress on his quest to learn healing. The way he'd been engrossed in a small book of beginners nursing to the point he barely noticed food was heartening. Studying was hardly his forte, but that book held his attention like a professional Quidditch game.

Unfortunately she wasn't anywhere near as confident in her own chances. Professor Babbling was one of the youngest Professors in Hogwarts history and she was already running the runes club and working on her own research. If she wanted to stand a chance of getting the attention she needed here she'd have to be able to offer something worthwhile, which she doubted she could do.

Hermione forced herself to stop her train of thought before she psyched herself out. She was getting in her own head again and it wasn't helping. A flash of the last time she'd been so worried she'd just rushed off to fix it without thinking. Two weeks of her two best friends giving her the cold shoulder had been an awful punishment.

'Still' she mused, glad to have something to take her mind off where she was heading. 'It's not like I was wrong, they were heading out to ride the silly thing by the time I'd gotten back'

Her lips turned down into a small frown. 'I really do need to talk to Harry about that, I know Ron was just upset about the broom being taken' A not at all dainty snort echoed out in the silent halls. 'Quidditch fanatic till death that one, I thought Harry would understand at least, I just wanted to make sure he was okay...'

She shook herself and lightly slapped her cheeks, it was almost time and she didn't need those thoughts in her head right now. There would be time to talk to Harry about it later, and she would. She needed to get some things off her chest about that time and once they were done with this she would.

"Okay" Hermione whispered to herself. "You can do this, there's no way she'll say no to extra lessons. You just have to impress her enough to ask for more"

The door was fast approaching and her breathing started to come faster and faster. Thoughts of potential rune configurations she could propose to impress her teacher, or languages she'd taken the time to memorize outside of class. She stood for a long moment, her hand hovering over the door while her mind tried to shove every possible worst case scenario into her mind.

A pale dainty hand crossed her field of vision, and to her horror knocked firmly on the door. Her head spun to see who had just done that to her, bushy hair flying around and obscuring her vision briefly. Standing at her side was a short dirty blonde girl in Ravenclaw trimmed robes. She was smiling up at Hermione dreamily, a slightly too wide eyes seemingly completely unconcerned with the look of horror she was being given.

"Wh-" She started, staring bug eyed at the younger and much shorter girl.

The wind of the large oak door opening in their faces cut her off, revealing Professor Babbling. The young teacher was dressed in simple grey robes, but in contrast to her usual teaching outfit had her hair down and a pair of simple reading glasses on the tip of her nose.

"Miss Granger?" She asked "What can I do for you" She pulled a small silver pocket watch from her robe. "At 8am on a Saturday?" She did a small double take and noticed the younger Ravenclaw next to her.

"Are you here for the same thing Miss Lovegood?" She asked before Hermione could formulate an answer.

"No, I just saw her struggling to knock, so I thought I'd lend a hand" Luna said kindly, "Although I have been meaning to come and ask you about something"

"Very Well" Babbling Sighed, stepping aside and sweeping her arm back. "Come on in, don't touch any of the-" she paused briefly "Just don't touch anything" She amended

Hermione moved through robotically, trying to ignore the Young woman humming what she was pretty sure was a muggle nursery rhyme beside her. Luna didn't seem to notice at all, walking light-footedly into the apartment that was the runes professor's quarters.

It was a mid sized and obviously well lived in space dominated by a large round coffee table absolutely covered in rune stones of various shapes and sizes. A large leather toolkit was unrolled on one side, a collection of variously sized carving and etching tools shining in the candlelight.

"Take a seat girls" Babbling said from behind them, gesturing over their shoulders at a comfortable brown sofa right behind the toolkit.

Once both girls were sat comfortably Babbling flicked her wand absently and levitated her sturdy desk chair over to the other side of the table and sat down.

"So" She asked, accepting a large coffee mug that had followed her chair in a lazy motion. "What brings you to my door so early girls?"

Luna turned in her seat, bringing her legs up and under her so she could face Hermione fully. She smiled reassuringly at the older girl and nodded for her to begin first. Hermione smiled back tentatively and took a deep breath.

"Professor I'm here this morning to petition you for an opportunity to be taken on as an apprentice" Hermione spoke formally, being careful to enunciate as clearly as possible.

Professor Babbling hummed quietly, "I see" She turned her eyes to Luna. "And you Miss Lovegood?"

"Oh, I just wanted to see if you had any recommendations for getting started early" Luna mused, a slightly musical lilt to her words as she tried to keep the tune going. "I'll be in your class next year and i wanted to get a head start"

The professor leaned back in her chair and took a long drought from her mug. She continued to glance between the two girls over the rim of her cup as Hermione grew more and more nervous. While Luna continued to hum quietly and observe the room Hermione tried to keep herself from fidgeting and making extended eye contact with the Professor that was calmly observing her. Finally after what felt like an eternity, but barely scraped by 10 minutes Hermione was all but vibrating in her spot.

"In the years I've been teaching here I've received 17 requests to be my apprentice" Babbling said simply. "I declined all of them for various reasons. You Miss Granger are the first I've been truly tempted to accept"

The Smile that lit up Hermione's face was so broad it made her cheeks hurt, but it dimmed just as quickly as it came

"But" She emphasized. "There are two things you will need to work on before I can consider taking you on" She smiled to take the edge off Hermione's panic. "You can be impatient, particularly with your peers when they don't grasp things as quickly as you do, and more importantly you have trouble thinking outside the box"

Hermione tried not to look too disheartened as her shoulders sunk. She was surprised when a small pale hand patted her shoulder gently and turned sharply, having nearly forgotten she wasn't alone. The briefly panicked look on the younger girls face relaxed her quickly though, smiling apologetically at Luna and getting a small dreamy smile in return.

"Not to worry though, I have an idea that I think will work well for both of you" Babbling continued.

"Young Miss Lovegood wants an early start to her Runes Learning, and is rather well known for her unconventional ideas. And you Miss Granger, need to learn to temper your frustration with students who don't know as much as you do and will be able to provide an excellent basic introduction to Runes. It was rather serendipitous that you both happened to arrive at my door at the same time."

Luna's smile widened slightly and she leant forward a little into Hermione's personal space. While Hermione gave an unsure smile and leant slightly away, not used to anyone other than Harry, Ron or her Parents being so close.

The three spent the next 45 minutes going over a plan to make sure that there would be enough time over the summer, and what exactly Babbling would be expecting to be done by the end of the holiday. Slowly, a workable idea started to take shape. Hermione would have to check in with her Parents, but if all went well Luna would be coming to stay with her for the first month of the holidays where they would work on theory and memorization. Then in the next month Hermione would be staying with the Weasley's, barely a stone's throw from Luna's Home. There they could do a little more practical work with a trained adult overlooking their work and Hermione would give Luna and her father a chance to try to show Hermione how to think outside the box.

Finally Babbling declared the planning as done as it could be without getting input from the parents involved and escorted the two from her study. As the door shut behind them Luna turned to Hermione and stepped up into her personal space, once again forcing Hermione to take a nervous step back.

"I can't wait to get started!" the little Ravenclaw exclaimed. "Oh this is so exciting, 2 whole months to learn and play and do things together!" She twirled and started to skip down the hallway. "It'll be just like having friends!"

And with that she was gone around a corner, and Hermione was left with a troubled look on her face and her hands clasped in front of her chest.

"Just like having friends?" She murmured to herself, before turning resolutely and marching towards the common room. She knew exactly what it was like to be so lonely that even having someone ask her to help them with homework felt good. She wasn't going to let the odd Blonde girl she'd just met feel like she had when her "Friends" in primary had disappeared as soon as she'd stopped being useful. She wasn't going to be "like" a friend; she was going to be for Luna what Harry had been for her, now all she had to do was tell the boys they were getting a new friend.

Harry was nervous, that wasn't an unusual feeling for him all things considered but he never quite got the hang of dealing with it. The thing about growing up with relatives who hate you, school teachers who ignore you and peers who either bully or ignore you for the entire first 10 years of your life is your ability to deal with things is a little skewed. Pain, danger, scorn and hate from his peers and teachers? That he could handle, it pissed him off and he wouldn't necessarily put up with it in silence but he could compartmentalize it. Good things though? Merlin, he didn't even know where to start with that, when Hermione had hugged him outside the final chamber of the philosopher's stone in first year he'd been more worried about that then walking through a wall of fire!

The thing he was by far the worst at though was asking for help, not that he had any problem saying the words; he just never actually expected anything to happen. He'd been proven right on that time and again too. His distrust started on his first day of Reception when his teacher had punished him for "Ignoring roll call" and had dismissed him when he'd said that he just wasn't used to answering to his name. He hadn't gotten dinner that night when he'd shown Vernon the letter the teacher had sent him home with. As the years went by he saw the same thing over and over, too tired to do his homework because he'd spent his entire weekend slaving away on chores for his relatives? Must be too lazy to work hard. Suddenly had a drop in grades when Vernon had threatened to belt him if he ever "cheated" and showed up Dudley in a test ever again? Maybe he had cheated and even with no proof he should be punished.

Harry suddenly stepped sharply into the alcove of a doorway, and after making sure he was alone in the hallways took a deep shuddering breath and pushed his frustration and impotent rage down. It hadn't gotten any better once he'd arrived here either, he growled internally. Oh congratulations Harry you're a wizard! Magic is real and you get to experience it, it all makes sense now. The reason his relatives hated him no matter what he did, as far as they were concerned he was barely human, Vernon didn't even tolerate Pakistani people, an actual literal wizard? He was lucky he'd made it to Hogwarts at all!

Guess what though; the entire society thinks you're some kind of mystery wonder boy who saved them all from the big bad dark lord. He was used to being ignored; being the weird kid that nobody wanted to hang out with just in case they got lumped in or Dudley decided they made a good target too. He had hoped he'd be normal by wizard standards, or at least that he could keep on being ignored. Instead he got his worst nightmare, every single person he met had some enormous expectation of him and every single one took one look at the short skinny kid with stupid glasses and baggy clothes and wondered what was wrong with him. He hadn't asked for any of this, the dead parents, the abusive relatives, the cruel teachers, giant dogs, trolls, spiders, snakes, dark fucking lords!

The sound of wood splintering broke him out of the spiral he'd been caught in and he spun sharply, stepped back in the same motion and ripping his wand out of his pocket to point at the now imploded door he'd been leaning against. Slowly, motes of white light drifted up from the tip of his wand like firefly's and Harry's harsh breathing started to calm. Luckily the door had led to a simple broom closet, so he wasn't going to be in trouble, as long as he left right now. A wand stuffed into trouser pockets and a quickstep later Harry was two hallways away and starting to calm down. The wisps and crushed door was new, but the spiral of negative emotions was something he'd been dealing with for years, after all when you get pushed down by everyone around you for your entire life wanting to push back was perfectly natural. He was smart enough to know what pushing back meant though, a dark cupboard, an empty stomach and if he was particularly unlucky a smack upside the head from one of Vernon's over sized mitts.

"Focus" he muttered sharply to himself, slapping both his cheeks like he was trying to wake himself up.

He was almost to the doors of Flitwick's office and the slowly ratcheting tension he'd been feeling started to cool. He was going to go in here, ask Flitwick for his help and whether he said yes or no Harry was going to find some way to learn anyway. He rapped sharply on the door and steeled himself, pushing away the nerves in his stomach with ease of practice.

Harry started when the door handle suddenly grew a mouth and smiled at him with brass teeth. "Come on in, I'm unlocked!" It said cheerfully, in a squeaky voice he recognized as Professor Flitwick's.

Unbidden a small smile flickered on Harry's face, Flitwick was his favorite teacher and the way the man seemed to make everything magical endeared him in a way he really didn't understand. Shaking that off he grabbed the door handle, ignoring the feel of a brass lip touching his hand and stepped through the door into one of the most pleasantly chaotic spaces he'd ever seen. There was a bucket of water and sponge floating alone in front of the enormous window that took up most of the back wall and doing a rather good job of cleaning the glass. The walls on either side were lined with either large low set tables covered in magical knick knacks, or book cases that stretched up to the rather high ceilings covered in tomes. The entire room was large, bright, wide open and felt light and magical like he'd just walked into a cool breeze on a hot day.

At the far end the grinning figure of Filius Flitwick sat behind a huge desk, a quill in hand and a large cup of steaming something sat comfortably in reach. Harry felt something relax slightly in him at the delighted look on the teacher's face, seeing someone so happy to see him was a fair new experience for him.

"Mr. Potter!" He called, "please come grab a seat up here with me" The large comfortable looking chair in front of the table suddenly shot back and wiggled in place like an eager dog. Harry gave it a hesitant pat, and then jumped up onto the seat, gripping the arms tightly when it rocketed back forward to put him right at the desk. A large cup floated up from behind the desk, and Harry relinquished his white knuckled grip on the chair after it had finished shuffling around.

"Tea, or perhaps pumpkin juice?" Flitwick asked jovially.

"Ah, no thank you professor, I just finished breakfast" Harry declined politely, watching curiously as the cup seemed to sink into itself a little, like it was disappointed before dropping out of sight.

"Well in that case Mr. Potter. To what do I owe the pleasure of your rather fine company this morning?" He asked, placing his quill down and folding his hands together, his large smile never leaving his face.

Harry took a moment to gather his thoughts, looking past Flitwick to the magnificent view of the forest his office window supplied. "Professor, I-" Harry started, before remembering himself and refocusing on the man in front of him. "I came to ask a favor. Is it true you were a world class duelist before you became a teacher?"

Flitwick's smile dimmed slightly, but took on a more thoughtful edge. "Indeed I was Mr. Potter, I was in the top 10 worldwide before retiring to start my charms mastery. Were you considering joining the circuit then, and looking for advice?"

Harry shook his head emphatically. "No sir, I'm already too famous as it is, I'd rather not draw any more attention if I don't have to" Flitwick chuckled in response and gestured to him to continue. "What I wanted to ask for was if you could teach me how to defend myself better?"

"And why" Flitwick asked slowly, "Would you think I could help teach you self defense better than any other teacher? I assure you Mr. Potter professional dueling and simple self defense have very little in common"

Harry sat silently for several moments, trying to figure out how to phrase exactly what he wanted to ask. He could hardly tell the professor that people kept trying to kill him and he needed to be able to fight back on equal footing.

'Except' Harry thought. 'Maybe that's exactly what i need to do'

"Do you know what happened at the end of my first year professor?" Harry started suddenly, holding the Professors eye as best he could. He hated to talk about these moments, they were completely personal and it felt wrong to bring them up like he was bragging or talking himself up. If anything was going to get Flitwick to agree to teach him though, a dark lord trying to resurrect himself was hard to beat.

"Only in the most general terms I'm afraid, Quirinus led astray by the lure of whatever was within the 3rd floor. You, Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger going after him and in the end the artifact was destroyed, you were in the hospital wing and Quirinus was dead" Flitwick narrated simply, very little of his previous happy demeanor remaining in the face of a dead teacher.

Harry smiled weakly. "I'm surprised the Headmaster didn't tell all the teachers" Harry swallowed dryly, regretting his refusal of a drink. "We thought Snape was the one after the stone, it made sense at the time, between how much he openly loathed me, the broom almost killing me and the way he skulks around all screams bad guy to an 11 year old"

Flitwick nodded, the corners of his mouth twitching up in amusement, but didn't interrupt.

"So when we found out Dumbledore had left the castle at the end of the year and would be gone for several hours we went to professor McGonagall and told her we knew what was hidden there and that we thought Snape was going to steal it" Harry continued, pausing for a moment when he realized there was an ice cold mug of something suddenly sitting next to his hand on the desk. He took a long draught of the cool water before continuing, patting the cup in thanks. "It was the Philosopher's Stone" Flitwick's sharp gasp stopped him for a moment, but he was waved on. "McGonagall said we were wrong, and refused to even look at it. So we thought we had to do something, after all we couldn't let someone bad get their hands on immortality and infinite gold right?" Harry laughed bitterly. "So down we went, past the Cerberus, the Devil's Snare, keys and chess and trolls and logic puzzles. 3 eleven year olds and we got through a trap that was supposed to stop someone who was after the Philosophers Stone with some bruises and a minor concussion."

At this point Flitwick held up a hand and Harry stopped in confusion, and then raised an eyebrow as a crystal decanter full of a brown liquid floated out from the top of a nearby bookshelf.

"I have a feeling Mr. Potter, that if "Philosopher's Stone" wasn't the most shocking part of this story I may need this." Flitwick said with a tight smile, pouring a small amount of the dark brown liquid into a small clear glass that had floated down with the decanter and placed it down next to him. "Please, continue"

"So, we were at the last stage, a logic puzzle with a potion that would let us walk through a wall of fire. Ron had been knocked out on the chess section, and there was only enough potion in the vial for one person. I sent Hermione back to get Ron and hopefully help and I went through to the end"

Harry took a shaky breath, this part was always the hardest to think about, there was a sad comparison to be made when the firs piece of genuine affection he could remember getting was followed by one the most horrible moments in his young life..

"I was shocked to see Quirrell there, I was so convinced it was Snape at the time" Harry shook his head. "Quirrell was standing in front of the Mirror, and at the time I thought he was talking to himself."

"Mirror?" Flitwick asked quietly, the weight of the story making anything louder than a murmur feel disrespectful.

"The Mirror of Erised" Harry explained, noting the teachers understanding look and deciding not to try and explain it. "He was almost ranting at it, talking about how he could see the stone, how he could see himself presenting it to someone."

A deep steady breath rang loudly in the suddenly quiet room, Harry taking a long moment to make sure he was as clear as possible about what happened next. Slowly he explained the entire encounter, from being petrified to getting the stone and seeing Voldemort's shade on the back of Quirrell's head. Finally he explained what had actually happened to Quirrell in the end, the pain in his scar, the smell of burning flesh and the feeling of a man's skull turning to ash in his hands.

"Voldemort isn't gone" Harry said roughly, "And he isn't going to let the fact I've stopped him 3 times go and leave me alone. When he gets his body back, whether it's in a week or a decade I need to be able to survive whatever he sends after me"

"Mr Pot-" Flitwick cut himself off sharply, "Harry" He continued with a gentler tone. "What you're talking about here isn't self defense, or dueling or even the sort of combat the Aurors would teach you. You're talking about fighting a war, one can't fight men like Voldemort and his Death Eaters with half measures, that's how we lost the war last time. I won't ask if you understand how serious that is, it's clear that you understand the gravity of killing a man" Flitwick took a long moment, before pushing away the glass of alcohol in front of him and continuing. "And I won't tell you I can't train you in some of the things that you would need to know to reach the goal you've set, because I can. But if i'm going to teach you I'm going to need your word on two things, and if you can't agree I'm afraid I'll be unable to help."

Harry's shoulders tensed slightly and he sat up ramrod straight, here was his chance to finally have a real shot of surviving what was coming. No matter what Flitwick asked he was going to do his damndest to see it done.

"The first is simple, I'll be teaching you more than simple spells and combat, So i'll need your promise that you won't slack off on something just because it seems unrelated" He said seriously, crystal blue eyes boring into Harry's. "If I tell you to read a philosopher's writings on economics and agriculture then explain to me your understanding of it I expect you to do it" He held up his hand to forestall any complaint, though to his credit Harry only had a slightly mutinous look on his face. "I'm not saying don't question me or think about my instructions, but I'll need your trust that no matter how odd it might seem I have a reason behind it and sometimes the reason will need to be figured out, not explained to you."

Harry nodded cautiously, although he knew that promise would most likely find some way to annoy him in future, it was perfectly reasonable. After all, when Wood had made the Quidditch team start running in the mornings before class they'd all complained. Merlin knew it had won them a few games though, the extra endurance carrying the day when the snitch was being uncooperative. He could trust that not everything he would be taught was going to be immediately and obviously useful.

"The second I think will be much harder for you in particular Harry" His voice gained a harder edge. "I won't train an assassin, or a man whose only use in the world in fighting and killing, no matter how urgent it might be to have those skills. So my second requirement is more open ended, I need you to find a goal, a dream, something that has nothing to do with Voldemort. We can work on it together, you can go work solo or even include your friends but part of your training will either be finding or working on something else, anything else."

"What if that delays me too much?" Harry asked forcefully, trying not to let his frustration leak into his voice "What if Voldemort figures out how to come back and I'm not where I need to be because I spent too much time on some silly hobby?"

"You're right, there is a risk that my insistence here will be the wrong choice, that Voldemort will be back too early and you won't be ready yet" Flitwick admitted. "But much like you are asking me to trust you with knowledge most would consider you far too young to know, you must trust me. That if that eventuality comes to pass, that you won't be the only one fighting, that even if you are perilously close to the top of his personal list that your teachers and friends won't simply allow him to have you." A small wizened hand reached across the large table to pat Harry on the hand. "When Voldemort is finally dealt with permanently, I will not see you lost and only able to fight Harry. There is life now, and there will be life after Voldemort is dead and I would see you live it rather than dedicate yourself to the death of a man to the exclusion of all else."

Harry leant back heavily in his chair and considered the diminutive professors words, he had never really considered what his future would look like. At the Dursleys he figured he'd leave at 17 and get a minimum wage job and try and get his life back. Once he'd made it to Hogwarts and realised there was still a psychopath trying to kill him, he'd kind of just assumed he wouldn't live to see much of his future anyway.

'That' He thought ruefully, 'Might be why I can't seem to be bothered doing anything properly' He considered his lackluster interest in anything that wasn't immediately satisfying and felt a small rush of shame. 'Is that what I've been doing? Just ignoring anything that wasn't fun right away because deep down I didn't think it would matter?'

Harry looked down from the ceiling to meet Flitwicks eyes, and for what felt like hours he studied the much older man. What was being asked of him was more than he honestly thought he was capable of, dedicating his time and life to beating a madman so the very few people he cared about could live life happy and free? Sign him up. Trusting an authority figure to not just teach him, but be willing to defend him against even Voldemort and putting enough faith in him that he could actually start thinking about life after Hogwarts? His mind drifted to his friends, and what he needed to do crystallized in an instant. He was taking an incredible risk here, and if Flitwick decided to go back on the deal or just flat out couldn't help him for whatever reason, well it didn't bear considering. But he needed a proper teacher, so he'd take the dive, Gryffindors charged in after all.

For Professor Flitwick the experience of being pinned to his chair by the intense gaze of a 13 year old was certainly a new one. He'd been under the aggressive eye of more dangerous witches and wizards in his years dueling than most could imagine. There was something about the assessing eye of the young man in front of him that made him sit a little straighter though.

"Sir" Harry started, swallowing thickly. "I want to agree to both of those, I really do but if I'm going to, I need you to know some things first. Without context you might not understand why I'll find that last one quite so difficult"

He received a quizzical look in response and understood why, Flitwick thought he was just single minded about not wanting to die. Having to explain in detail everything he'd been through and why he actually had so much trouble imagining a future, Merlin he wished there was another basilisk to fight instead.

"It all started when Professor Dumbledore left me on the doorstep of my Aunt and Uncles house…"


	2. Catching Light

When Harry finally made it back to the common room he was barely standing, his hair plastered to his forehead by sweat. After going into far more detail about his home life than he ever had before and spending the next 10 hours running through a barrage of tests and questions that still had him scratching his head on their relevance. He got why he'd had to demonstrate spells and run through a fitness test but "Given the choice would you rather live alone and receive constant visitors or live with several people but never see anyone else?". He was already starting to regret his agreement to Flitwicks two rules.

"Harry?" Hermione's voice rang out from next to him and his head jerked up from his exhausted slouch towards the stairs. "You've been gone all day! How did it go, are you alright?"

She was sitting curled up in the corner of one of the enormous squashy armchairs near the fireplace. Her bushy hair pulled back into a messy ponytail and what appeared to be a letter sitting in her lap.

"Hermione?" He asked, his voice rough and weary. "Yeah...yeah it went great" He continued perking up a bit as he leant heavily on the back of her chair. "Professor Flitwick and I talked about...well everything to be honest. He wanted to know about pretty much my entire life before he would agree and then he ran me through this huge pile of tests and quizzes, but I've got a teacher when I get back after the summer. What about you, how'd it go talking to Professor, uh...Babbler?" He finished lamely.

Hermione rolled her eyes "Professor Babbling Harry" Her lips twisted up in confusion. "But before I tell you about that, what do you mean 'Everything', you didn't tell him about all the uh...well completely illegal things we've gotten up to right?"

Harry chuckled lightly "Don't worry, I made sure we had a blanket forgiveness before I got to those parts as long as we hadn't done anything completely immoral. He was very impressed and completely horrified by the sheer amount of life threatening things we'd gotten up to but he swore no-one would hear any of it from him"

"Oh thank God, in that case it went well! There was another girl who turned up there too, have you heard of Luna Lovegood?" Harry shook his head mutely. "Well she's a second year student who was coming to see Professor Babbling as well. She wanted to get a head start on Runes before next year, so the Professor said that if I wanted to be her apprentice then I had to prove I could teach someone else!" She finished breathlessly, before looking away slightly, turning a little red. "And uh, she said Luna could help me with a problem I have with thinking outside the box too"

Harry gave her a dry smile. "You do tend to not like things that don't fall into the line with what you expect them to. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing!" He corrected quickly, noting her beginning to scowl.

"No, she was right. What's the point in taking on a runes student who can't innovate?" She admittedly with a sour twist to her lips. "Anyway, apparently Luna and her father are pretty well known for thinking really outside the box, so I think Professor Babbling is hoping we'll even each other out a little?" Hermione shook her head, "So if both families agree Luna will be spending the first half of the summer with my family where I can get her ready for the theoretical side of things. After that we're going to see if we can meet up at the Weasley's house for the last part of summer, Luna lives just around the corner from them"

Harry nodded along with a tired smile, his own plans for dealing with the Dursleys fitting neatly into that plan. If all went well he should arrive at the Weasley house at roughly the same time as Hermione did, hopefully with some idea on how to answer Flitwick's second question.

"That's interesting," Harry said. "Professor Flitwick had a kind of test for me to complete over the summer too, I wonder if Ron has something to do as well?"

"He does" Hermione confirmed, "I dropped by after dinner and we talked about how things had gone" She explained, noting Harry's questioning look. "He said Madame Pomfrey was happy to have him, but she's worried that he doesn't have the best study habits" She gave a slightly guilty giggle at that. "So he has to read Mungo's Principles of Internal Magical Medicine and do well on a quiz she'll have for him after summer. What does Professor Flitwick want you to do?"

For an instant Harry's expression sharpened and he studied her face carefully, like he was taking in everything about her at once. Hermione's breath caught briefly before she purposely relaxed, very carefully not acknowledging the brief thrill that look gave her.

'Perfectly normal' She reasoned internally, 'Last time he looked at me like that he followed it up by casting the most powerful magic I've ever seen and saving my life, of course It's a little exciting to see again"

While Hermione talked to herself internally Harry was considering just how much of his personal mission he was going to share. On the one hand this was Hermione, the smartest person he knew and she'd absolutely be able to help. On the other he was certain she'd figure out the real reason he had to do something as simple as have a vague plan for his future. He couldn't really imagine how that conversation would go, but 'good' certainly wasn't it.

"I have to do a few things actually" Harry started, his expression relaxing as he made his decision. "Professor Flitwick says he won't ever teach someone just dueling or combat magic. 'An unbalanced blade is useless, why should a man be any different?' he said" Harry quoted. "So aside from just keeping up an exercise routine he wants me to find a hobby, something I can do anywhere so i'll always have something to relax myself with and…figure out what I want to do, after Voldemort that is"

"That sounds like a good idea," Hermione said, returning the dry smile she'd received earlier. "You do have a bad habit of brooding, if you've got something productive to do I'm sure that'll help and" She looked down slightly. "I think he's right about planning for the future too, you're an amazing Wizard Harry, you shouldn't have to dedicate your life to dealing with that lunatic and never get to be anything else"

The warm rush Harry felt at that had nothing to do with the roaring fire near them, his face gained a pink tinge that he tried to hide with an embarrassed cough. For a long moment the two looked in different directions, both ignoring the pleasantly uncomfortable moment. Finally Harry turned slightly to start heading to the stairs.

"Thanks" He murmured, "I need to get some sleep"

"Yeah. Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, "By the way, I hope you don't mind, but Luna will be sitting with us from now on"

Harry paused, but after a moment's thought simply shrugged and gave her a last tired smile.

"Sure, of course"

\----------

Ron officially had no idea what he was thinking when he'd decided on this plan. Night had fallen on the first day of his training to become a Healer and he was pretty sure he knew less about the human body than he did that morning. The ridiculously sized textbook in his lap was apparently the book on anatomy for all aspiring healers. What he didn't get was why he had to not just know that there were 206 bones in the human body and where they were, he also had to know all of their names! Sure, Madame Pomfrey had given him a very good reason for why he was being dumped in the deep end of the study side of things, but still!

"I don't hear a quill writing or a page turning!" A faint call came from the small office attached to the Hospital Wing.

"Ugh" Ron groaned to himself. "Okay let me start again, these word memory thingy's just aren't working for me"

He grabbed a scrap of parchment and tapped his inked quill absently on the small mnemonic he had written there. Apparently it was easier to remember these ridiculously complicated words if he associated a silly saying with it, but the ones in the book just weren't sticking. He had a feeling the usual students reading this book were a lot more academically minded than he was.

'Okay, I can do this, I just need to associate these bloody things with something I actually remember' He thought viciously. 'Frontal, Parietal, Occipital, Ethmoid, Temporal and Sphenoid...I can't even pronounce most of these!'

His head hit the backrest of the bed with a dull thud. 'F, P, O, E, T, S' He thought, 'First pot or Eat The Skill? Ugh, not even close.'

Ron's eyes drifted to the window and he found himself wishing this was more like Quidditch, he never had any issue remembering player names or games. He could recite the last 30 games, who played and who won. For Merlin's sake, he could even tell you the scores!

'Quidditch' the thought struck him like a bolt, 'I can remember Quidditch! Okay, S could be Snitch...'

A few hours later Madame Pomfrey walked silently out of her office, not at all surprised to see Ron weasley slumped over a small pile of parchment and the textbook she'd given him earlier. She shook her head in fond amusements and gave her wand a brief flick, her intent directing the small burst of magic to neatly pile up his belongings and tuck him in gently. She paused over the pile of parchment and her eyes lit up, at the top was a carefully written series of words in two lines, clearly lining them up on either side of the page and with a crude drawing of a skull and arrows alongside it.

Parietal - Puddlemere

Occipital - Owns

Temporal - The

Frontal - First

Sphenoid - Snitch

Ethmoid - Ever

This was exactly what she was hoping for when she'd set the young man a seemingly impossible task. A student who had issues studying was one thing, but if they could be creative in how they learned and retained information, that she could work with. The small knot of worry she'd been nursing as Ron had repeatedly reread the same section eased slightly. There were always healers who stalled at a certain point in their education, either due to lack of magical skill, or an inability to properly memorise and visualise the complicated anatomy they needed to know for in depth healing. This was exactly the sign of lateral thinking she had been hoping he would show, there was an incredibly long way to go, but if he could apply this kind of thinking to other parts of the field she had a hell of a student on her hands. She hesitated a brief moment before lifting the top scrap of paper to see if he'd had any other successes.

Phalanges - Please

Carpal - Chop

Metacarpal - My Head Off

Was far less promising but it did elicit a small laugh from the elderly matron. She remembered all too well the late nights she'd spent writing similar things. A twitch of a finger and the few remaining candles in the wing snuffed out and she turned to head to her quarters. A young man with a big heart, a passion for helping people and now the beginnings of some skill in lateral thinking? Oh she couldn't wait to rub this in her old colleagues at St. Mungo's faces, her 'Standards were too high to take on a student' were they, hah!

\----------

Luna was either living out a dream or someone had spiked her apple juice this morning. She gave her cup a suspicious look before focusing back on the bushy haired brunette engaged in a lively conversation with Ron Weasley. She'd thought she was lucky last week when Professor Babbling had declared she was going to spend an entire summer with the older Gryffindor. Apparently Hermione wasn't one to perform half measures though, because she'd walked over to the Ravenclaw table the moment she'd arrived in the Great Hall the next day and invited her over to join her.

"I'm just so proud of you!" Hermione exclaimed, as Ron manfully struggled to ignore the attention they were getting.

"I appreciate that" He mumbled through a mouthful of mashed potato. "But please keep it down, people are starting to stare"

"Sorry!" She whisper-shouted, lowering her voice below the clamor of the hall. "I knew you were studying while you were in the hospital wing, but I didn't expect all this" She reached over and tugged a piece of parchment he had brought down with him admiring the shakily laid out columns of information.

"Oi!" Ron squawked, yanking back the parchment. "Don't just grab my stuff!"

"She can't help it mate" Harry said, clapping Ron on the shoulder as he collapsed into the chair next to him. "It'd be like if Hermione suddenly turned out to be the best chaser you'd ever seen"

Harry greeted Hermione and Luna before carefully picking a selection of vegetables and lean meats from the piles of food on the table, casting a mournful glance at the bacon and eggs.

"That's fair" Ron admitted, before sighing and casting a rueful glance at Hermione. "Just...not in public alright? I have a reputation to uphold!" Hermione giggled and nodded before Ron caught a look at the unusual meal Harry had started attacking with vigor.

"What's with the rabbit food mate?" He asked quizzically.

Hermione snorted and Luna hid her mouth with her hand to try and hide her giggles, both ignoring the long suffering look Harry was giving them.

"'The human body is like a good potion, if you don't give it the right ingredients you won't get the right results'" He quoted, shoveling another forkful of green beans into his mouth.

"Wot?" Ron asked simply.

"Professor Flitwick's training, he says a good duelist has good body control, doesn't matter how much magic I know if I can't even keep up in a duel for 5 minutes without getting exhausted" Harry acceded grudgingly. "So healthy food, lots of exercise and he's been making me practice dodging spells every morning too. I'm sure he's right, but I do miss bacon sandwiches…"

"I'll bet" Ron teased, piling up a huge one of his own and smiling broadly at his best friend. "Although, did you hear about Lupin?" He asked seriously

"Yeah" Harry said quietly, "I went to visit him as soon as I had, try and talk to him about everything that happened"

"How'd that go?" Ron asked doubtfully.

"About how you'd expect" Harry laughed bitterly, "He gave me the cloak and map back and tried to explain himself, not that he really could." Harry shook his head. "I just can't imagine why he never...like if I had a kid and then died suddenly you would look after them right?"

Ron looked completely offended at the very thought, "Of course! That little brat would see me every minute I could spare!"

"Exactly!" Harry speared a sausage viciously. "I get that he couldn't come find me when I was growing up, apparently the wards Dumbledore put up prevented anyone with any kind of dark magic taint from approaching me and werewolves fit that category. I even understand never sending a letter, after all if he couldn't see me a letter would have just come across as a lunatic and might have gotten him in trouble. But he gets a job here where he can finally see me and he just never says a word till I bring it up?"

Ron was nodding along with a sour twist on his lips. "When you put it like that it is kinda messed up." He agreed, "Maybe he was just scared you would hate him or something, not that that would excuse it"

"That's pretty much what he said" Harry sighed, "Which I also get, it's cowardly as all get out but I understand that. The thing I really couldn't get over though was the night he went after Sirius"

Ron gave him a quizzical look, "I know he didn't explain himself well, but he was doing the right thing" Ron snorted suddenly. "Well up until he transformed at least."

"Exactly" Harry said quietly, "I don't have a problem with him being a werewolf, hell it's no different than Hagrid as far as I'm concerned. But forgetting his potion? I don't care how freaked he was to see Sirius on the map." Harry scowled and shook his head sharply. "If the moon had broken the clouds a few minutes later there'd have been a feral werewolf roaming the halls of Hogwarts"

"Yeah" Ron said quietly, "I hadn't even thought of that" He trailed off silently looking horrified. "Merlin what if some first year had woken up early to explore or something?"

"Yeah" Harry sighed and shook his head. "I'm glad he didn't get arrested or anything, but if he can't even remember that consistently he shouldn't be in a school."

Ron chuckled suddenly. "You're three for three" At Harry's confused look he elaborated. "Defense teachers trying to kill you! Sure this one wasn't intentional, but it counts!"

Harry chuckled and rolled his eyes before turning back to his food, listening with half an ear to the conversation across from him.

"-lly quite simple" Luna said airily, stacking pieces of toast together in the shape of a house as she spoke. "They're tiny invisible creatures that float into your ear and make your brain go fuzzy. Haven't you ever suddenly lost a train of thought and stared into space for a few minutes? That's usually them"

"Of course I have, it's just that surely someone would have observed one if they were real." Hermione responded exasperatedly. "I mean why wouldn't it just be people losing focus, does it have to be a creature?"

"It doesn't have to be" Luna answered, frowning slightly as her toast house crumbled under the weight of the sausage roof she'd added, before shrugging and starting to eat the results. "It just is and there are records! My father and I have investigated them plenty of times and the effect they've had on people, haven't you read the Quibbler?"

Hermione scoffed, "Of course not, that-"

"Isn't really her kind of thing" Ron cut in sharply, doing his best to silently warn Hermione not to finish her sentence.

The tone of it had been clear though and Luna gave a dreamy smile and stood up from the table. "I have some things to collect before the train leaves" She said and turned to leave.

"We'll see you in the compartment then?" Harry asked, making the invitation as casual as possible, as if her presence was assumed.

She hesitated but eventually nodded quietly and left, thankfully missing Hermione's head hitting the table behind her back. The table was silent for a long moment, the two young men continuing to eat while Hermione rolled her head side to side on the hardwood.

"Why do I keep doing that!" She said tiredly, her voice muffled by the table. "Every time she starts talking about some animal or creature I've never heard of I just can't seem to help myself!"

"Yeah and her dad runs the quibbler too" Ron interjected absently, his focus back on the food. "So that was pretty awkward"

"Ron" Harry said reproachfully, getting an apologetic nod in response. "Look Hermione, I'm the last person to give good advice on making friends. So far my record is Ron putting in all the effort at the start, saving your life, saving Ginny's life and you brought Luna to us. So I'm about 50/50 on life threatening madness and other people doing all the work, but even to me it's obvious you're putting a lot of effort into making friends with Luna."

Hermione finally lifted her head up a red spot in the center of her forehead that everyone ignored as best they could. "I am!" She cried out "I keep trying to find things in common and talk about them, but every time I do she brings up something completely crazy and I just can't help but correct her. Yesterday we were talking about gardening we could do with my mother over the summer and she started talking about planting mistletoe to attract Nargles, what am I supposed to say to that?"

Harry took a long moment to consider what he wanted to say before opening his mouth. "I think…" He started carefully, "that you don't have to say anything at all. You're approaching this like an essay, you've got your topic sentence, to be Luna's friend. So you're trying to fill out some sort of mental checklist, things in common, stuff you can do together" He hesitated for a long moment but ultimately reached out to lay his hand on top of hers. Still he almost flinched away when she jerked slightly in surprise at the sudden affection, only stopping when her free hand lanced out sharply and dropped on top of his.

"The three of us don't do that" Harry smiled awkwardly, his cheeks heating up slightly. "We just hang out together, and if we don't agree then we talk about it or just agree to disagree." The reluctant agreement on Hermione's face spurred him on. "Plus...what if she's right?"

"Harry" Hermione said disapprovingly. "Invisible dust sized creatures that float into your head and make your thoughts fuzzy?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "There are literally unicorns in the forest outside." he said dryly. "And if someone had told you they existed a few years ago you'd have called them crazy too. I'm not saying she's definitely right" He amended, to forestall the impending objection he saw coming. "It's just, we're surrounded by all these incredible things. Magic is real and you're a real literal witch, who's to say there aren't magical creatures or effects that haven't been discovered yet?

"So, you're saying I should try and help her find and observe these things, if we can then she'll be happy and if not we at least did it together! That's a great idea!" She squeezed his hand and gave him a huge smile. "I'm gonna go find her right now"

"Wait!" Harry started "That isn't exactl- and she's gone" He sighed and dropped his chin into his hand staring after the brunette as she speed walked out of the hall. "Once she sets her mind on something she really doesn't let it go does she?"

"Nope" Ron said, the P popping loudly. A long silence followed as Ron took an absent bite of his sandwich and made a few marks on the piece of parchment in front of him. "She sure held onto your hand for a while there though…" He trailed off, smirking at Harry from the corner of his eye.

Harry turned crimson and stood up quickly. "Right well I better finish packing!" He exclaimed in mild panic and left the hall at a jog.

"Seeya at the station!" Ron called after him, shaking his head in amusement at his two oblivious best friends.

\----------

As the Hogwarts express pulled out of the station later that morning, Hermione confirmed something that Harry and Ron had both been wondering about since their talk last week.

"I finally spoke to Professor McGonagall yesterday to tell her I was dropping Muggle Studies and Divination, I also handed in the Time Turner" Hermione said.

"I still can't believe you got three hundred and twenty percent on an exam" Ron grumbled. "At that point they should just get you to teach the class"

He trailed off as he saw Harry staring out the window, watching the spires of Hogwarts disappear behind the mountains.

"Cheer up Mate" He said, clapping him on the shoulder.

"I'm alright," Harry said quietly. "Just got a lot to do this Holidays, trying to figure out how to start"

"Well you can start by planning on getting to my place as soon as possible." Ron said cheerfully. "It's the Quidditch world cup this summer! Dad can usually get tickets, benefits of being a department head."

"We'll be there too" Luna said happily, "Daddy got Press tickets, and when I told him Hermione would be coming to stay he got an extra one for her. Put her down as an freelance researcher and they were happy to pass another along"

"Really?" Hermione asked in surprise. "Well I suppose it would be interesting to see a worldwide gathering of Wizards and Witches if nothing else" She mused.

"Yeah it should be great, we'll be going a little early to set up camp and make sure we get plenty of time to observe everyone arriving" Luna explained.

"I'll be there" Harry confirmed with a sharp nod. "You'll need at least one other fan there to keep these two from distracting you with culture while there's Quidditch on" He teased.

"Exactly!" Ron said with a grin at the same time Hermione gave a squawk of objection.

The foursome spent the next few hours quietly chatting, Hermione and Luna working on what they were calling their "Unusual Beast Compendium". Meanwhile Harry and Ron played a few rounds of exploding snap and snacked liberally, only pausing for Ron to attempt to heal the minor burns he kept getting from being too slow to release his cards.

"Episkey" Ron intoned carefully, a faint yellow glow coating the small burn on his fingers before fading with no effect. "Damn it" he cursed.

"Maybe we're going about this the wrong way" Harry mused across from him, staring quietly at the small burn Ron had gotten in their last game. "You said Episkey was like ninety percent feeling right?" he asked

"Yeah that's what Madame Pomfrey said" Ron agreed, wincing slightly as he poked his burn with the end of his wand. "It's apparently the go to for injuries if you can't take the time to figure out exactly what's wrong, all feeling and power, but crazy inefficient compared to most healing magic."

"Right, so either you're not putting enough intent into it" Harry said doubtfully, eyeing the bright yellow glow as Ron cast the spell again. "Or you're not really invested in healing the injury"

"I guess" Ron said, brow furrowed in confusion. "I mean it stings a bit, but I'm not desperate to fix it or anything, aside from just wanting this spell to work"

Harry shook his head and carefully placed the tip of his wand against his forearm, catching Ron's eye as he finally looked up from his last failed attempt.

"You have to need to heal it" Harry said before jerking his wand in a small V and jabbing it into his forearm without flinching.

Ron reacted immediately as a cut opened on the top of his best friend's arm and a bead of blood rolled off onto the floor.

"EPISKEY!" He shouted, giving his wand a quick twist clockwise and drawing it back sharply.

The resulting yellow glow lit the cabin like the sun in a brief flash and drew the attention of the two girls. They looked up from their work curiously as Harry smiled brilliantly and held up an uninjured arm with a faint bloodstain on it while Ron scowled viciously.

"Harry what the FU-" Ron started to yell before cutting himself off, seeing from the corner of his eye what Harry hadn't yet.

"Told you," Harry said simply, before getting a chill and looking at the other side of the cabin.

The sickly sweet smile on Hermione's face froze him for an instant before he started to blanch realising what he'd done and who he'd done it in front of.

"Now Hermio-" He started raising his hands non threateningly, unintentionally drawing more attention to the blood.

"Oh Luna" Hermione interrupted him.

"Yes Hermione?" She responded as if she was about to be asked about the weather.

"Did you just see Harry cut himself to prove a point?" Hermione asked sweetly, "I must have been imagining it, because that would be ridiculous right?"

"I'm afraid I couldn't tell you" Luna replied, not taking her eyes off the small diagram she was drawing for Hermione's notes. "But it does sound like a silly thing to do" She glanced up, her silvery eyes catching Harry's for a moment. "Are you prone to rash actions resulting in physical harm Harry Potter?"

The cabin froze for a moment before Hermione's righteous indignation broke and she giggled helplessly. Ron followed shortly after, a loud snort turning into a series of roaring guffaws while Harry tried to look offended but ultimately joined in. A minute later the laughing had started to trail off into the occasional burst of giggling when Hermione caught the look of pleased wonder on Luna's face. Acting impulsively she slung an arm around the smaller girls shoulders and pulled her up against her side.

"Oh we're definitely keeping you" She exclaimed with a brilliant smile.

Harry matched her with a warm look at the two, "Absolutely" he agreed.

Ron nodded in agreement before pausing in puzzlement, peering past Harry out the window.

"What on earth is that?" He asked incredulously, staring at the small grey ball of fluff bobbing up and down outside the window.

Harry stood up and opened the window for a better look and saw it was a tiny owl carrying a letter far too big for it. The owl was so small in fact that it kept getting pulled to and fro by the trains slipstream, sometimes performing full somersaults in mid air. Harry's hand flicked out the window quickly and caught the tiny bird, carefully not squeezing too hard.

As soon as the window was closed he released the owl and watched in bemusement as it dropped the letter and began to zoom around the compartment sounding very pleased with itself. Hedwig ruffled his feathers and gaze a dignified hoot of disapproval. While crookshanks sat up languidly and started to follow the tiny owl with great yellow eyes. Ron snatched the owl from the air and gave the cat a disapproving look, while all was forgiven for scabbers he wasn't dealing with another hunted animal. Harry meanwhile had picked up the letter and was carefully opening it and starting to read the parchment.

"It's from Sirius!" Harry said happily.

He suddenly realised what he'd said and who was present and looked up at Luna sharply.

"Uh, he means" Ron started, joining Harry in desperately trying to find an explanation as for why Harry would be happily getting a letter from a wanted criminal.

"Not that Sirius of course" Hermione started to babble, moving her arm from around Luna and shifting to look at her, trying to see if she was buying their panicked half excuses..

Luna simply smiled dreamily at the three, not letting the odd ache of disappointment she felt at being suddenly on the outside of the trio after feeling so welcome just moments ago show on her face. Nor even remotely thinking about the tiny blush that was just starting to fade from her face after being held tightly against Hermione's side.

"I think I should go to the bathroom" She said simply, giving the three an out. After all she was only a new friend, she couldn't expect to be in on everything they'd done since they became met.

The small blonde jumped up suddenly and took a quick step towards the door before freezing as two hands landed on her at almost the same time. Hermione had laid a hand on her shoulder and Harry had reached out as quickly as a snake striking and caught her wrist gently. She turned luminescent silver eyes on the two, wondering absently as Harry flinched sharply and loosened his grip but didn't release her.

"Wait," Harry said firmly, making eye contact with the other two in the compartment before gently tugging her back. "Please stay"

Ron nodded seriously and Hermione was gently pulling her back into her spot, so she acquiesced without further complaint. Once Luna was back in her seat, although this time not pressed up to Hermione's side Harry took a deep breath.

"Okay so naturally you must have questions ab-" He started before being cut off

"Sirius Black must be innocent" Luna said, cutting him off before he could try and explain. At the shocked looks she was getting she decided to elaborate. "Well I hardly think you would be happy to hear from someone who was directly responsible for your parents death. I also doubt that any of you, Hermione in particular, would have simply taken someone's word if they told you that was the case, so you must have seen something irrefutable." Luna explained with the air of someone explaining that the sky was blue.

"Well" Harry swallowed and glanced around to make sure he wasn't the only one impressed by that summary. "That's pretty much dead on actually, how did you figure that out so quickly?

"Well I am a Ravenclaw you know" She said impishly, a tiny teasing smile. "I also assume you don't want me to tell anyone?" She asked plainly, "After all, if you could prove he was innocent it would hardly be something you would keep secret correct? Also, uh, my hand?" She finished off her strong speech with a much softer voice, a red tinge creeping up her cheeks.

Harry glanced down, and realising he was still holding her hand and had been absently rubbing it let go like he'd been burned.

"Sorry!" He blurted out, "And uh, yeah exactly. We told the minister everything and he decided to try and execute him without a trial again, so we had to help him escape."

Hermione quietly watched Harry explain, trying to pay attention but more concerned with the odd feeling she'd felt watching the two essentially hold hands next to her. She shook herself off though and very pointedly ignored the look Ron was giving her from across the compartment.

"We're sorry about that sudden outburst" She said to Luna, "It's just a pretty big secret, and you're the first person we've told about it"

Luna gave her a sincere smile and shook her head, blonde hair settling around her shoulders gently.

"It's okay, I wouldn't have been upset if you'd asked me to leave to talk about it, we only just started to become friends after all" She finished, only slightly exaggerating how okay she'd been with being left out.

"Nah," Ron said casually, "You're gonna be hanging out with us a lot, we'd screw up and tell you at some point. At least we're all alone in here"

The assumption that she would simply always be welcome with these three briefly overwhelmed Luna and she teared up slightly. Harry and Ron pretended not to notice as politely as they could and Hermione gently rubbed her back while she wiped her eyes.

"So that letter!" Ron said loudly, uncomfortable with anyone crying in his presence."What does Sirius have to say?"

Dear Harry,

I hope this finds you before you reach your aunt and uncle. I don't know whether they're used to owl post.

Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I won't tell you where, in case this owl falls into the wrong hands. I have some doubt about his reliability, but he is the best I could find, and he did seem eager for the job.

I believe the Dementors are still searching for me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts, so that the security on the castle will be lifted.

There is something I never got around to telling you during our brief meeting. It was I who sent you the Firebolt —

"Ha!" Hermione said triumphantly, "See! I told you it was from him!"

"Yeah, but he hadn't jinxed it had he?" Ron replied, "Ouch!" The tiny owl in his hand had decided that it needed to express it's affection and a sharp bite was apparently the way it had decided on.

"But" Harry said, "you were right, and if it had been cursed in some way it might have killed me. I'm sorry i didn't listen at the time, and I was such an ass about it afterwards" He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I was honestly just upset you went behind my back, but after thinking about it a bit if you hadn't I would probably have been up in the air before a teacher even got there"

Hermione smiled gratefully, "I am sorry for doing that, I promise next time I won't I'll come to you first"

"And I'll do my best to listen," Harry smiled back.

"Yeah yeah we're all sorry, c'mon man what else did Sirius say?" Ron interrupted, refusing to get drawn into another sappy moment.

Harry coughed awkwardly and kept reading.

– Crookshanks took the order to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to take the gold from my own Gringotts vault. Please consider it as thirteen birthdays' worth of presents from your godfather.

I would also like to apologize for the fright I think I gave you that night last year when you left your uncle's house. I had only hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you.

I am enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable.

If ever you need me, send word. Your owl will find me.

I'll write again soon.

Sirius

Harry looked eagerly inside the envelope. There was another piece of parchment in there. He read it through quickly and felt a small part of him relax, one of the things he'd been planning for his summer suddenly dealt with.

I, Sirius Black, Harry Potter's godfather, hereby give him permission to visit Hogsmeade on weekends.

"That'll be good enough for Dumbledore!" said Harry happily. He looked back at Sirius's letter.

"Hang on, there's a PS…"

I thought your friend Ron might like to keep this owl, as it's my fault he no longer has a rat.

Ron looked down at the fluffy ball of feathers doing it's best to nibble his fingers off. "For me?" He asked uncertainty, then visibly steeled himself and held the owl out towards Crookshanks. Harry and Hermione shared a surprised look while Luna leant in to watch the two animals interact closely.

"What do you reckon?" Ron asked the big ginger cat. "This one okay?"

Crookshanks purred loudly.

"Right" Ron nodded sharply, "Good enough for me, looks like you're mine little buddy" He gently ran a finger over the tiny owls head.

Harry reread the letter a few more times on the trip back, but ultimately decided to err on the side of caution and incinerated the letter and the envelope and the letter, leaving only the permission slip. After vanishing the ashes he reluctantly woke up Hedwig, tied it to her talons and opened the window.

"Sorry girl, but I can't have any proof of Sirius being in contact with me, can you please get this to Dumbledore and meet me at the Dursleys?" He asked contritely. He received a disgruntled hoot in return, but did get a slow nuzzle of her great feathered head.

"Actually" Hermione spoke up suddenly, "Do you mind if I borrow Hedwig for a little bit at the start of the Summer?" She glanced at the large avian "If that's okay with you Hedwig?"

Harry gave her a quizzical look but agreed easily enough. "Sure" He shrugged before turning back to His familiar. "Head to Hermione's afterwards then?"

She hooted back gently, then with a quick nip of his fingers she swooped out of the window back towards Hogwarts. Just in time too, as they were finally moving out of the fields of England and Scotland and into the final approach to King's Cross Station.

The four disembarked together, Ron giving his recently healed fingers a pleased look, while Hermione and Luna were looking out for their respective parents. Harry meanwhile had already caught sight of his Uncle, not that he was easy to miss. The giant walrus faced man was standing a good distance from the Weasley's, but couldn't help but stare suspiciously at them every few moments. Harry briefly wondered if seeing someone genuinely happy to see him had given the man a stroke as Mrs' Weasley enveloped him in a hug.

"Oh Harry dear it's so good to see you again, you will come and see us this summer won't you?" She pulled back, holding him by his shoulders and looking him over. "You're looking a lot better too, standing up straighter can make a big difference"

Harry laughed and gave her a warm smile, not at all put off by her mothering "I'll definitely be there Mrs Weasley" He said happily, brushing off her reflexive "Call me Molly dear' with a smile. "Thank you for having me"

"Of course dear, you're always welcome at the Burrow" She finished, hugging him again before turning to Ron and starting to fuss over him too.

Harry turned to Hermione and Luna, the two waiting patiently for him to finish being smothered.

"My parents are upstairs at a cafe" Hermione said "But I guess we'll say goodbye here, your uncle doesn't look happy"

Harry shook his head, "Nah, I'll come meet your parents too." He said confidently, glancing at the steadily reddening man scowling at him. "Gimme a second to deal with this" He said before leaving his cart with them and strolling towards his uncle.

"Sorry you had to come all this way for nothing Uncle" Harry said cheerfully as he stopped just outside of the man's reach.

"Nothing?" He snarled, staring at the two girls he'd left his trunk with. "Go get your trunk from those trollops, I haven't got time for your nonsense."

The smile Harry gave him was all teeth and he couldn't help but flinch slightly. "No I don't think I will actually" Harry continued brightly, ignoring the darkening red cheeks on his Uncle. "I've got a much better idea instead, how about you and I make a deal!"

"No deals, no bargains, you're going to get your freak things and come with me, and if you're lucky I might let you eat tomorrow" His jowls flapped as he tried to keep his voice down and shout at the same time, giving him a constipated look.

Harry simply shook his head and let his smile dim, a darker look passing over his face. "Fine, no deals then" He said simply, before holding up a picture of Sirius Black from the front page of the Prophet that he'd kept. "This" He gestured with the bit of paper, ignoring how Vernon flinched at the moving picture. "Might look familiar, it's Sirius Black maybe you remember him from the news last summer?"

"What's your point boy" Vernon growled.

"Well as you can see while he was being looked for in the Muggle world, really he was a wizard!" Harry finished with a dramatic flourish of the paper.

"What a shock, your freakish jails can't even keep your criminals out of our good normal soci-" Vernon grumbled before being cut off.

"He's also my godfather" Harry said cheerfully, enjoying seeing his Uncle's piggy little eyes go wide and his face turn white. "See he was in prison for the murder of 12 people, when he got word from someone that I might be in danger! Well of course, he might be a murderer but he's still a good godfather so he broke right out and came to look for me"

As Harry gave carefully prepared lies he was enjoying the mounting horror on the face of the man who had treated him like dirt his entire life. Vernon meanwhile was starting to regret every single time he hadn't simply dumped the wretched potter brat in front of him at an orphanage while pictures of the cackling madman on the page in front of him turning up at his door and seeing the cupboard spun through his mind.

"So here's how this is going to work" Harry continued, his voice dropping coldly. "It'll be great, I'll sleep in my room upstairs and aside from that I'll be avoiding your house like the plague. I won't cook, clean or do much of anything for you or your family. Instead, you can do what we both want and pretend I don't exist. I'll be gone before you get up in the morning and if I'm in the house when you get back from work I'll be staying in my room."

"You want to live in my house and not pull your weight" Vernon growled dangerously, his fear forgotten momentarily in his outrage.

"I pulled my weight" Harry growled back, "11 years in a cupboard, fed scraps and clothed in rags" Harry kept his voice low, but cold as ice. "Or would you rather I pass that on? I know what I'd do if I found out my best friend's son had been treated the way you've treated me, and I'm not a mass murderer"

Behind him, unknown to him Hermione and Luna were watching carefully, both concerned by the ugly expression on the fat man's face. Unconsciously Luna reached out to clasp Hermione's hand when a gentle rush of cold air flowed back to them and a faint haze settled over Harry's shoulders like a cloak. Hermione squeezed back but couldn't tear her eyes from the spectacle happening across the platform from them. Nearby Ron was standing with his family, wand drawn and fully ready to charge over the second the giant man standing over Harry made the slightest move. Molly and Arthur were both standing stiffly, more than prepared to walk over and give the man a piece of their minds, but letting Harry handle it for now.

After a moment where it was clear his rage at not getting his way was warring with his sense of self preservation the man caved. His piggy eyes glanced around the platform and he blanched at the half a dozen redheads giving him cool looks from across the platform, particularly the middle aged one casually gripping a wand.

"You planned this" He accused in a low growl. "While we're still surrounded by your freaks you wanted to-"

"You aren't exactly a paragon on self control" Harry interrupted, "And if you'd done something stupid before I could finish talking…Well I'm not exactly defenseless anymore uncle"

"You'd be expelled" He sputtered, trying to win any kind of point now he knew he'd lost the argument.

"And my godfather would still have come regardless" Harry finished for him. "I'll find my own way back"

Vernon snorted like a bull and turned to leave, "Fine, we'll do it your way, but if I see too much of you..." He finished in what he probably thought was an ominous way before turning and storming away.

Harry simply snorted at the idea of being afraid of a fat walrus in a badly fitting suit shirt and turned to walk back to Hermione and Luna. Giving the Weasleys a grateful nod of his head as he passed them, getting a firm nod back from Ron and Arthur, and a wobbly smile from Molly.

"So!" He said cheerfully as he arrived back, giving their clasped hands a curious glance before shaking it off. "Sorry you had to see that, shall we go meet your parents?"

"Are you...okay?" Hermione asked carefully, reluctantly dropping Luna's hand now the worst seemed to be over.

"Better than" He said reassuringly, grabbing his trolley and getting ready to push it.

The two girls shared a look, but ultimately let it go and led him out of the station and up to the street. Sitting outside a small cafe built near the entrance to the underground Hermione spotted her parents drinking small cups of coffee and smiling at each other gently. Her father was a reasonably tall dark haired man, with thin build and a crisply pressed button down shirt and tan vest. Across from him her mother was a short, curvy woman with the same bushy hair as Hermione cut down to her shoulders and done up in an elaborate twist. She was dressed in a colourful combination of knee length blue dress and a dark purple jacket over the top.

"Mum! Dad!" Hermione exclaimed, drawing their attention as she rushed over with her trolley and drew them both into a big hug.

"Welcome home little queen" Her father murmured quietly, holding her close.

"Oh sweety we've missed you so much" Her mother added, giving her a squeeze.

The Granger family stood for a long moment before remembering that they weren't alone.

"Oh!" Hermione started, turning and gesturing her friends closer. "Mum and Dad this is Luna Lovegood" She gestured to Luna and they greeted her happily, though giving a bemused smile when she gave a curtsy rather than shake their hands. "And this is Harry Potter!" She finished, gesturing to where Harry stood awkwardly.

"Ah we've heard a lot about you Mr Potter!" Hermione's father stepped forward and offered his hand warmly. Harry grasped it uncertainly and gave a firm shake.

"All good things I hope?" He asked with a hint of nerves.

"Oh plenty of that" Dan winked and he heard Hermione groan loudly. "Please, call me Dan"

"I'll try Mr. Granger" Harry agreed, smiling at the good natured groan he got for that.

Meanwhile Emma Granger was fawning over Luna, "Oh darling you have just the prettiest hair, I can never get mine to stay still for a moment, something my dear Hermione inherited unfortunately" She gushed, "Oh and silver eyes! Isn't she absolutely gorgeous sweety?" She asked her thoroughly embarrassed daughter.

"Well we were just going to head on home from here" Dan told Harry with a laugh, "Did you want a lift somewhere?"

"No thanks sir, I've got some business in London today before I head home, Thank you though" Harry declined politely, before feeling a sudden yank on his arm.

He was pulled partially off balance before he caught himself and slid his feet apart slightly to regain his balance. He turned burning green eyes on whoever was trying to attack him, his wand half drawn from his pocket before he met Emma Grangers' startled brown eyes.

"Ah...sorry" He said lamely, dropping his wand back into his pocket and rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Reflex, my bad" He explained.

To her credit she rallied easily, "No problem!" She said happily, "My name is Emma, please call me that, Mrs Granger and Ma'am make me feel old"

"Sure, pleasure to meet you Emma" Harry agreed readily, chuckling as Dan shot him a faux insulted look.

"He's so handsome too!" She suddenly burst out, turning back to Hermione and dragging her and Luna both forward to stand next to him. "I can't believe you never mentioned his eyes in your letters! I've never seen such a vivid shade of green before, or silver for that matter!" She rattled on as Hermione turned redder and redder, burying her face in her hands.

"My wife" Dan explained gently, "Is something of a lover of fashion and styling, it's why she runs the cosmetic dentistry side of our business. She also does some fashion design on the side as a hobby, she can't quite help herself when she sees something or someone she thinks is interesting and particularly attractive unfortunately" He finished with a dry laugh

While Dan had been explaining the intense scrutiny Harry was getting Emma had turned back to Luna and Hermione and was talking about matching dresses and complimentary colours. The vivid image of the two in matching but contrasted summer dresses flitted through Harry's mind before he quickly shook it out, suppressing the blush he felt.

"Well I have to get moving" Harry said apologetically. "Sorry but I have some things to get done before I head home"

"Not a worry, It was a pleasure to meet you Harry" Dan shook his hand again and moved back as his wife moved forward.

"Next Summer you have got to come and see us, we'd love to have you!" She gushed, smiling brightly and grasping his hand between both of hers.

"I'd love to?" He answered unsurely, still unused to this level of enthusiasm.

"Alright let's bring the car around love" Dan took his wife by the hand and gently dragged her off.

Harry turned, ready to tease Hermione about how her mother kept all the girlyness for herself but was met with a hug that could have cracked ribs. He glanced down and was unsurprised to find a head of bushy hair buried in his chest, however unlike his usual policy of freezing up he forced himself to react the way he'd always wanted to. He wrapped his arms around his best friend and pulled her closer, matching her squeeze for squeeze. The quiet gasp and small nuzzle he got in return was more reward than he could have asked for such a small thing.

'This might be the first hug I've ever actually returned' Harry mused to himself, slowly getting redder and redder as it went on. 'I should do this more often' He decided as Hermione reluctantly let him go, her whole face as red as his was.

He gently released her as she stepped back, not quite meeting his eye. "I'll see you before school right?" She asked with more timidness than he'd ever heard from her.

"Definitely, I'll see you at the cup at the very least" He confirmed with a firm nod, before turning to Luna, surprised to see her right next to them with an odd sparkle in her eyes. "You too Luna, see you soon"

He even surprised himself a moment later when one of his arms seemingly moved of its own accord and pulled the smaller Ravenclaw girl into a quick one armed hug. Ignoring any possible repercussions to that action or the long hug he'd given Hermione, he grabbed his luggage from the trolley and dragged it down the road waving over his shoulder.

"Have fun you two!" He called over his shoulder, "Don't forget to send a letter back with Hedwig!"

As Harry disappeared around a corner Hermione and Luna piled into the back of the range rover her parents had pulled up next to them while they said their goodbyes. Now that they were finally apart she took a deep breath and really began to consider how she had been feeling today since Harry had grabbed her hand that morning, including the particularly odd one she'd had when he'd given Luna that quick hug just before leaving.

"So that was an awfully long hug" Her father piped up, wiping her train of thought in an instant. "Should I have the shotgun ready when he visits next?" He asked playfully.

"DAD!"

\----------

A mile away Harry tilted his head as he heard a faint yell he could have sworn sounded familiar. He shook his head and continued on, deciding not to borrow trouble today of all days. There was a lot he needed to get done and not a tonne of time to do it in so he needed to make double time. He turned onto the street that held the leaky cauldron a little while later, breathing quite heavily from lugging his luggage the whole way.

'From now on' He panted internally. 'I'm carrying muggle money for cab fair'

Finally he burst through the door of the cauldron, giving Tom a weary wave and passing through to the back, tapping out a familiar pattern on the bricks.

"Okay" Harry said to himself, staring at the white marble building at the far end of the alley. "First things first"


	3. Fire Point

Harry rolled out of bed and was on his feet in an instant, breathing as though he'd just run a marathon and completely drenched in sweat. He looked frantically around the room expecting something to leap from the shadows at him. Slowly his eyes focused properly and the dimly lit room became clearer. His open trunk was sitting neatly next to the large dark wood table on the far side of the room covered in books and loose parchment. A false window sat above it, currently showing a peaceful night sky over a vast lake. His Firebolt was resting on a specially made perch in the corner with a half open maintenance kit open on the floor next to it. He reached out and grabbed one of the 4 wooden beams that made up the corners of his four poster bed and sat heavily on the edge. The cool dark red sheets brought a moment of relief before he started to take deep calming breaths.

Slowly his heavy panting started to slow and as soon as he felt like he could catch his breath again he lurched up and stumbled out of the room into the small ensuite. The mirror over the clean porcelain sink slowly lit up along the edges giving the room in a faint golden glow to match the dawn breaking outside. Another bolt of agony burst across his forehead like a firecracker and he leant forward jerkily to press his forehead into the cool glass, attempting to stave off the pain.

Finally after several long minutes of slow breathing and a white knuckled grip on the sink Harry let out a final slow breath and the sharp pain faded to a dull ache. He leant back and opened his eyes properly, catching a glimpse of himself in the large mirror. A young man of 14 was looking back with brilliant green eyes, a sweat matted nest of coal black hair on his head and a faintly haunted look on his face. Nearly 6 weeks of a decent diet and a proper exercise regime had finally pushed his underfed young body out of the "Too Skinny" category into a healthy leanness. Not the defined musculature that his quidditch captain boasted or even the lead chaser Angelina's ridiculously toned arms, but the promise of future muscle he was quite proud of.

As the pain receded the details of what exactly he'd been dreaming about that had caused his sudden migraine started to filter back. A dark room, a snake curled up on a hearth rug and two men, one he hadn't recognised but the other...he straightened with a short gasp and rushed back out into his bedroom. Throwing himself into the chair at his desk he scrambled for a piece of parchment and a quill. This wasn't the first time he'd dreamt of finding Wormtail since the summer began but it had never been like this before. He absently rubbed his scar again before starting to write, trying to eke out every detail of his dream onto parchment before it slipped away.

He couldn't pretend to be an expert on curse scars, or any magic really, but a dream so vivid he could still feel the texture of the wooden stairs combined with his scar hurting like someone was branding him? He wasn't going to take any chances with something he knew was in some way connected to Voldemort. A few minutes later he had exhausted every possible detail he could squeeze from his sleep muddled memory and dropped his quill back into it's pot.

"Now" He murmured to himself, "Who the hell do I tell about this?"

He leant back in his comfortable plush chair and stared at the gently glowing ceiling while considering his options. Briefly the image of going to the Durselys flitted through his mind and he snorted loudly, the very idea of coming to his hateful relatives looking for comfort was so absurd it went straight past sad into morbidly amusing.

'Hey Aunt Petunia, I had a bad dream and it involved magic' He imagined, 'If you could stop screaming for a second I really could use some help' In his half suppressed laughter he caught a glimpse of the small pile of letters he had been keeping from his friends.

He had been shocked when Hedwig had returned from her brief stay with Hermione and Luna with a rather large letter from each of them and a veritable novel from Ron. Still he hadn't been complaining, talking to Ron about Quidditch and his studies in medical magic (and how he frequently wished he could pull his brain out and shake the thing so it would focus better). To Hermione about how she was going in her teaching Luna runes and her very well researched advice on any of the admittedly odd questions he'd been asking her this summer. Even Luna's initially hesitant letters had given way to a shockingly insightful girl, who in spite of the sometimes odd commentary had been a constant source of pleasant conversation and unique advice. The constant contact combined with his new surroundings had made what was usually a very bleak time of year for him rather pleasant. Hedwig had been ecstatic at the sheer amount of work she'd had this year as well. Although the majestic snowy owl did seem to resent the occasional visit from Ron's tiny owl he had oddly named Pig, presumably due to its ability to eat its body weight in owl treats.

He would be telling the three about his dreams of course, they'd kill him if he tried to keep something so important from them. Not right away though, this wasn't the kind of thing he wanted to put in a letter to them. Dumbledore was the obvious choice, the man had been fighting Voldemort longer than Harry had been alive and was the most well learned wizard Harry knew. In spite of that he knew that he wouldn't be telling him directly, as much as he respected the Headmaster he just didn't feel comfortable sending such a personal letter to the man. Sirius was another option, although again he knew there was no real way he would be telling him under his current circumstances.

Harry had received 2 letters from him since arriving back in Privet Drive, both of them delivered by ridiculously large tropical birds rather than the usual owl. In both it had been abundantly clear in reading between the lines that Sirius was recovering somewhere warm and dry. Something the poor man was in desperate need of after being confined to Azkaban for 12 years in the cold and damp. Both letters had been extremely clear (Between stories about Harry's parents and what Sirius called his "Godfathers Duty" advice) that Harry was to let him know if he needed anything.

His cheeks briefly warmed up at the sheer amount of detail his godfather had included in his "Godfathers Duty" advice before he shook it off with a smile. No he wouldn't be telling Sirius about this either, he was glad to have a real connection to his family and he wasn't going to give the hotheaded man an excuse to come running back to his death. When it came right down to it he knew there was really only one person he had to tell about this, no matter how awkward he felt about it.

Dear Professor Flitwick

I'm sorry to be bothering you during the holidays but you told me to write if I needed anything and this might sound a little weird but I had a nightmare last night.

Here Harry copied in every detail of the night he had noted down on the torn piece of parchment, including the details about his inexplicably burning scar and lingering pain.

My scar hasn't hurt like that since the chamber with Quirrell, I know that's not the strongest evidence but I know what it feels like when Voldemort is close and since I doubt he's hiding in my hall closet, I'm assuming the dream is related. Anyway, I'm sorry to dump this on you right before school starts but I had to tell someone and I knew you'd listen at least.

On a happier note I think I might finally have an answer for your second task, or at least I have a direction I want to start moving in. I'll have some more detail to give you along with that extra pile of homework you gave me ready for our first meeting.

Thanks Again,

Harry Potter.

With a quick shake of the lightly enchanted paper the ink dried in an instant and it rolled itself in a neat scroll. He dropped it into the small metal dish that he had purchased for Hedwig and wrote the teacher's name on the outside in spidery lettering so she'd know where to take it. A large amber eye caught his for a moment at the noise but his familiar simply ruffled her feathers and returned to sleep, refusing to match his ridiculously early start. He chuckled and gently pressed his forehead to her wing in a facsimile of a hug before moving to the large wardrobe to get ready for his day.

\----------

By the time Harry returned from his morning routine a few hours later the three Dursleys had usually vanished for the day. Vernon to his work, Dudley to terrorise the neighborhood and Petunia to gossip with whichever mouthy neighbor she hadn't alienated yet. Unfortunately he wasn't so lucky this morning based on the company car that was still sitting in the driveway. Harry blew a lock of sweat drenched hair out of his eyes and mentally prepared himself to either sneak past the lot or get into a ridiculous argument with the horrid people who made up his only blood relatives. Sighing and deciding to get it over with so he could have a shower and change into some real clothes he squared his shoulders and opened the door. To his complete lack of surprise the kitchen table visible at the end of the entrance hall had his visibly fuming Uncle sat behind it with beady eyes fixed on the door.

"You" He growled out, "In here now"

Harry raised an eyebrow at the hostile greeting but obliged, walking forward into the kitchen and taking a seat across the table. He couldn't help a tiny smirk crossing his lips as he caught sight of the small plate still on the table with what passed for breakfast in the Dursley house right now. Dudley absolutely needed to go on a diet, and the fact it had been school mandated in such a way that even Petunia's delusions about her son couldn't deny the truth was nice. The fact that Petunia had decided that the rest of the family would be doing the same diet in solidarity had nearly put Harry in hysterics. His well kitted out kitchen in his tent upstairs was waiting though, and unlike Vernon he had a proper breakfast to look forward to so he only made one snarky comment rather than the stream of sarcasm he wanted.

"Good Breakfast?" Harry asked casually, pretending not to notice his uncle's bushy mustache bristle in anger.

The large man leant menacingly forward, but when Harry remained unmoved he simply grumbled and tossed an open letter at his chest.

"That came with the morning post" Vernon said loudly, "With enough stamps on it to ship it to the bloody moon, tell your kind we don't want to hear from them and we don't care what you do, got it boy? Honestly the postmaster delivered it personally, thought it was funny! What sort of-"

Harry tuned out the rant at that point, just nodding along whenever he heard a pause, reading the letter that Mrs Weasley had apparently felt the need to send to his relatives.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,

We have never been introduced, but I am sure you have heard a great deal from Harry about my son Ron.

As Harry might have told you, the final of the Quidditch World Cup takes place this Monday night, and my husband, Arthur, has just managed to get prime tickets through his connections at the Department of Magical Games and Sports.

I do hope you will allow us to take Harry to the match, as this really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; Britain hasn't hosted the cup for thirty years, and tickets are extremely hard to come by. We would of course be glad to have Harry stay for the remainder of the summer holidays, and to see him safely onto the train back to school.

It would be best for Harry to send us your answer as quickly as possible in the normal way, because the Muggle postman has never delivered to our house, and I am not sure he even knows where it is.

Hoping to see Harry soon,

Yours sincerely,

Molly Weasley

P.S. I do hope we've put enough stamps on.

Harry gave a final nod and stood up from the table, "I'll make sure they know not to contact you again" He agreed readily, more than happy to keep as much of his life from the man as possible.

"See that you do" He sneered, "Now I've wasted quite enough of my day waiting on you" He stood from the table with a quiet groan and gave his wife a quick peck on the cheek. "See you tonight pet"

Ignoring the hateful words Harry got up from the table and turned to jog upstairs his exhaustion was forgotten in his new excitement. He'd been waiting all summer for the chance to visit his friends and it was finally happening. He brushed past Dudley without a word and a broad grin on his face, ignoring the fat boy entirely and hurling simself through the door into his bedroom. A quick tap on the top of his tent and he was through into the small living room, only to see what looked like a grey tennis ball fly straight at his face.

"What the F-" Harry swore, his hand flashing up and catching the tiny owl in a gentle grip. "Bloody hell Pig, what have I said about the face?" he asked the tiny owl rhetorically as it wiggled in his grip, hooting happily.

Harry sighed and gave Hedwig a rueful smile as she stared imperiously at him like it was his fault Pig was such a handful. She gave him one last reproachful look and clacked her beak in what he assumed was annoyance before grabbing his letter to Flitwick and winging past him

"I'll be at the Weasley's before you get back!" He called after her, trusting her to find him one way or another. He unraveled the letter tied to Pig's leg and let the bird take Hedwig's place on the stand, helping himself to her treats and water.

Harry! Dad finally heard back about what kind of tickets he's getting, and get this! BOX TICKETS! He did a favour for Ludo Bagman (Bloke that runs the games and sports dept) and they gave him enough top box tickets for the entire family, how nuts is that! Oh and sorry mate, mum insisted that we send a letter to the muggles, it might have already arrived. She sent it a few days ago but I wanted to wait till we knew what sort of tickets they'd be before writing to you. I still can't believe it, we're gonna be high enough to be above the goals!

Anyway, whether the muggles like it or not we're coming to get you Sunday at 5pm okay? I know you said you've been avoiding them, and I told dad a weekday when the fat one (The older fat one) was at work was better but he insists on at least pretending like they're trying to meet them halfway. Oh yeah and when I say the whole family I mean it, even Bill and Charlie are back in the country and they can't wait to meet you.

I'm sure one of them's told you already but just in case, Hermione and Luna are already at the campground. Luna's dad decided to get there early and camp out, apparently press tickets have a few requirements like getting there crazy early. Honestly mate, the way those two hit it off after Hermione stopped calling her crazy every time she mentioned a new creature you'd think Luna was her long lost little sister or something.

Fair warning before you arrive though, don't mention anything about abroad or Percy'll bore your ears right off your head. He just started a new job in the international cooperation department and he's so excited about filing paperwork he can't stop telling us about it. I've learnt a lot this summer, but boredom induced ear loss isn't something I can heal just yet, so avoid him for both of us please.

Seeya Soon!

Ron.

P.S. If you bring that tent of yours can I bunk with you mate? The one dad's borrowed is already looking pretty crowded.

Harry gave the letter a fond look before dropping it onto the coffee table and walking into his bathroom, stripping off his exercise gear as he went. Two more days and he'd be back where he belonged, in the magical world with the people who mattered most to him. Weird migraine inducing dream or not, nothing could sour his mood now.

\----------

Ron glanced up at the clock for what felt like the thousandth time today, not surprised to see barely 5 minutes had passed since the last time he checked. He glared back down at the uncooperative page that explained in precise detail how to brew a shrinking solution and his frustratingly half done essay on it next to him. In the near constant reading and studying he'd been doing over the last 6 weeks two things had become very clear to him. The first was a pleasant surprise, he really liked learning about healing.

It was satisfying in a lot of the ways chess was for him, identifying symptoms was much the same as seeing an opponent's trap a few moves in advance. The more you knew about the body, how it worked and how a disease or injury might affect it the more moves in advance you could see. In his communication with Madame Pomfrey she'd posed several theoretical situations to him and let him muddle his way through by asking questions by post. It had been thrilling though, carefully phrasing questions to her to tease out that little bit of extra information. Putting together seemingly unrelated facts by comparing them to symptoms listed in his book and sending his best guess to her.

He had only gotten two even half correct so far, messing the others up either due to misunderstandings or simply not getting enough information before making his guess. That had been a valuable lesson after he got overconfident following his first right answer. Something as simple as not asking his "Patient" whether it hurt anywhere else except where they'd initially told him it did. He'd been overconfident and assumed that something as obvious as feeling pain in two places would be brought up by the imaginary guy. As Madame Pomfrey put it 'Patients make assumptions, which is why we can't afford to. Question everything'.

The second wasn't unexpected but was still a little frustrating and was why he was still staring at a piece of homework he'd wanted to finish weeks ago. In spite of his newfound ability to sit and read what most would consider a rather dry book cover to cover (As long as it was Chess, Quidditch or Healing related) he was still really bad at focusing on things he found boring. Hence his buggeringly annoying potions homework still not being done with only 2 weeks left in the holidays. Which was especially frustrating because Pomfrey had made it extremely clear that no matter how well he did on her Healing quiz. She wouldn't accept a subpar student in any subject under her tutelage.

"Alright there little brother?" A voice suddenly piped up from behind him, startling the young man out of his funk.

"Bill?" Ron asked with a groan. "Why does potions have to be so dull?"

A commiserating chuckle answered him and he gave a weak smile when he felt the older Weasley pat him on the shoulder.

"I'm afraid I don't have an answer for that" Bill laughed, "But I might have a way to make it easier on you"

Ron gave him a pleading look. "Please, if I get to the World Cup campsite and tell Hermione I'm still not done with my homework she'll lecture me so badly I won't even be able to enjoy the game" He moaned.

"Whipped" Charlie coughed from the doorway, wandering in to join Bill in "Helping" his youngest brother.

"Oh don't even start" Ron jerked his head up to glare at them, pointing his quill violently at both of them. "I'm as interested in Hermione as I am Ginny. Nagging older sister, not interested, get me?" He asked with a scowl, not giving either brother an inch to joke about.

The last thing any of them needed was his brothers being jackasses somehow convincing Harry he had a thing for their mutual best friend. Knowing how frustratingly self sacrificing that git could be he'd step aside in some misguided attempt to make sure his friends were happy.

Both raised their hands in defeat and let it pass, "Okay okay, no need to blow a cauldron" Charlie said. "But if it's potions you're struggling with you should just do what I did when I almost failed 4th year. Ask mum for help" Bill nodded along in agreement.

Ron's confused look was apparently answer enough because Bill started to elaborate without prompting.

"She got an O in her potions N.E.W.T back in they day" He explained "I never had much issue with the subject myself, but I remember she got Charlie through to an EE on his O.W.L.s"

Ron opened his mouth, most likely swear colourfully about never having considered asking either parent for help. But luckily he was interrupted by the reason he'd been studying in the living room instead of somewhere more comfortable. The fireplace lit up a vibrant green and his best mate stumbled out and nearly tripped over his own trunk with a broad grin on his face.

"Finally!" He shouted, jumping up from the table and stepping forward to embrace the shorter young man tightly. "Thought you'd never get here mate!"

Harry laughed and returned the hug, giving him a few slaps on the back for good measure. In the background Bill and Charlie exchanged a surprised glance, though he was returning it enthusiastically now they'd seen the tiny reaction when Ron had appeared in front of him. A quick twist of his wrist and tip of a wand poking out of the sleeve of his long sleeved shirt that disappeared just as fast as it appeared.

"Sorry for the wait" Harry grinned, "I had no idea your Dad would be coming through the floo, the Dursleys had the fireplace boarded up! He blew the wooden cover off, covered the living room in ashes and started asking my uncle about the TV!"

Bill and Charlie joined in the laughter at this point, drawing Harry's curious eye to the two redheads he didn't know. Charlie stepped forward first offering a hand to him while Ron grabbed his trunk and turned to lug it up the stairs to the room they'd be sharing. Harry could see immediately that Charlie was built much more like the twins than Ron or Percy was. Although he was certainly far more muscular, his black singlet showed off both an impressive set of arms and some equally impressive burn scars. He had a wide smile on his face and Harry took his hand happily giving it a firm shake while introducing himself. Charlie clapped him on the shoulder and stepped aside to let Bill come forward as well.

Bill was perhaps the coolest person Harry had met at first glance, with his long hair pulled back into a ponytail and Dragon fang earring in his ear. He was dressed like he was on his way to a rock concert, and it was only his creature's class textbook that let him know the vest and boots he was wearing were dragon hide, not leather. It was hard to believe that he apparently worked at a bank of all things.

"Alright Harry?" He asked good naturedly, to which Harry simply nodded with a smile letting the man continue past him towards the hall.

A faint pop echoed from outside the house and a rather frazzled looking Arthur Weasley came bustling into the kitchen with a vaguely panicked look on his face.

"Well that could have gone better!" He said a little breathlessly, pouring himself a large glass of water and taking a deep drink. "Rather an unpleasant sort aren't they Harry?" He asked with half a joking smile. "Thank Merlin Ron convinced me to go alone, I was thinking about bringing the twins!"

"Ah, yeah that wouldn't have gone well" Harry agreed, "Thanks for coming to get me though Mr Weasley, I was really looking forward to seeing everyone and thanks again for letting me come with you to the game, it's kind of a dream come true" He finished earnestly.

Arthur simply waved it off with a small smile, "Of course you're invited Harry, practically one of the family"

Harry wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, so he smiled a little weakly and swallowed the pleasant lump in his throat before speaking.

"Thanks Sir" He said quietly, before clearing his throat and speaking a little louder. "I'm gonna head up and help Ron set my bed up"

He barely made it two steps before running into another Weasley. In his opinion one of the best parts of the burrow was how little distance you needed to travel to meet someone else who was actually pleased to see him, but this was getting a little silly.

"Hi Harry!" Ginny said brightly, turning bright red. "What happened to your glasses?"

"Hey Ginny" He smiled back "Oh! I finally went to a muggle eye doctor, they gave me these contacts to wear" He explained. "I have to change them out like once a week, but no more fumbling around and being blind in the mornings at least"

"It looks really good!" She exclaimed, before seeming to realise what she'd said and rushing past him "Anyway I've gotta help prepare dinner bye!" She said in a rush.

"Thanks!" Harry called after her with a bemused smile, turning to continue up the stairs.

Percy was standing halfway up the rickety zigzagged staircase with a pinched look on his face. Staring down at the kitchen as if the noise in there was the source of all the world's ills.

"Hello Harry" He said stiffly. "Nice to see you, please do try to keep quiet on the stairs, I'm trying to work in here and everyone else just thunders up and down them day and night"

"No problem?" Harry answered unsurely, slipping past the scowling young man who turned and closed his door with a snap.

He was so distracted by the odd encounter he stepped completely into the waiting arms of Molly Weasley who was standing just a few stairs further up with arms open. He stiffened momentarily before he registered who was hugging him and forced himself to relax.

"Welcome back Harry dear" The Weasley matron said fondly, giving him a squeeze before letting him go and giving him a look up and down. "You're looking much better than last summer, finally getting some meat on your bones. And you can finally see those lovely eyes of yours without those glasses in the way""

"Yeah I had a much better diet this Summer" Harry confirmed with a nod, unable to help the warm smile that had crept onto his face. Molly Weasley could sometimes be overbearing and fussy, but he'd never met someone as goodhearted as she was. Even when she'd sent the Howler to Ron in second year and he'd just about burst in secondhand embarrassment it had been obvious she was more worried than angry.

"That's good to hear," She said with an equally warm look. "Now head on up, I think I heard Ron messing around with something up there. If I was a betting woman I'd say he's trying to assemble that tent of yours" She stepped past him and continued down the stairs into the kitchen.

Harry spent a few moments basking in the warm motherly feeling before starting back up the stairs. He passed the twins door without slowing, not interested in seeing what possible pranking nightmares they needed a test subject for. And being rewarded for that foresight when a few steps past the door he heard a resounding crack and black smoke started leaking under the door. A quickstep later he was half jogging up the last flight to the final floor where Ron and his parents' rooms resided. He burst in the door and slammed it shut behind him just in time to hear Molly Weasley's roar from below.

"FRED, GEORGE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW!"

He arrived in Ron's room at half a sprint, slamming the door behind him and giving Ron a weak smile. After a moment to make sure he wasn't included in the catastrophe below he moved forward to help him finish assembling the Wizards Tent. Both of them content to ignore the commotion that had started beneath them seeing they weren't being blamed.

"You know we have to be up to disassemble this at the crack of dawn right?" Harry asked with a wry grin.

"Sure, but you've been telling me about this place all Summer" Ron explained, "I had to see the place before we got to the campsite so I knew what I was getting into"

Harry rolled his eyes but pulled the last corner into place and rested his hand on top of the entrance so it would register him and unlock. He stood back and gestured Ron inside with a smile, knowing exactly how he would react.

"Bloody Hell!" Ron exclaimed from inside.

Harry chuckled and followed him in, watching the lanky ginger wander the living room with an awed look on his face.

"My bedrooms through there" Harry gestured to the far side of the room and a solid oak door that was the entrance to his area. "Guest beds to the left, Bathrooms next to it" He continued pointing out the relevant bits. "And the kitchen's on the right there" He finished putting his hands on his hips and giving the place a proud smile. This was the first place that had ever really been his, and he was proud of how it had turned out,

"This is crazy" Ron muttered, sinking into the couch with a wide eyed look. "How much did this place cost!?"

"Ah" Harry said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I'll be completely honest, it was a lot of Galleons" He admitted awkwardly, "The bloke who sold it to me said it's permanent though, I figure when we're done with Hogwarts I could just live here no matter what happens" He justified.

Ron gave him a flat look. "I didn't think you bought a temporary house that wouldn't last out the school year mate. I figured you were gonna use it long term." He said dryly, trying to suppress the spark of jealousy he felt in his stomach. Not even done with his O.W.L.S and already technically a homeowner, Ron couldn't even dream of being able to do that.

"About 2000 Galleons" Harry admitted, "There was a cheaper one for about 1000 that was only 1 bedroom and no kitchen or anything but…" He trailed off.

"But?" Ron bit out, unintentionally getting a little heated at the idea of just throwing so much money around.

"Well I figured if I got two bedrooms and a kitchen instead of just the single it would be more space" Harry explained, not seeming to notice Ron's attitude worsening. "So I'd always have somewhere for you or Hermione" He paused slightly before adding. "Or Luna, to stay no matter what"

Ron deflated like a punctured balloon, his red ears and slight scowl both disappearing like they'd never been there. Of course Harry spent more money then Ron had ever seen just so his friends would have somewhere to stay, just in case. He felt a brief stab of self loathing at how ready he'd been to bite his best friend's head off. He couldn't help but be a little jealous over the summer when Harry had told him about all the things he'd been buying to fill this place out. Truthfully half of his desire to see the inside of the tent had been an odd mix of longing and envy for the luxuries Harry could just get without thinking, as well as simple curiosity.

Looking at Harry now though, dressed in a well fitted black t-shirt and jeans with a proper pair of sneakers on and his half broken glasses finally done away with. Superimposed over it he saw the half starved boy he and his brothers had rescued last summer, clothes so worn they were almost see through in places and pants that had to be rolled up 5 times just to go over his feet. He watched as Harry grew more energetic in explaining the features of his new house, obviously happy to finally have someone to share it with. When he reached the chess board that melted up through the center of the coffee table Ron simply burst out laughing.

After a few moments of laughing Ron let out a long breath, wiping a tear from his eye and giving Harry a fond look ignoring the confused head look he got. "Come on mate" He stood up and clapped him on the shoulder, turning to steer him out. "We should help set up for dinner"

"Wait a sec" Harry objected, but obliged in moving towards the door. "Don't you wanna see the bedrooms?"

Ron shook his head and smiled wickedly, "Save the bedroom for the girls mate" He snarked, shoving Harry gently out into his room.

Harry gave him a faux offended look, and locked the tent behind them before turning to march imperiously off, throwing a joking "Well if you're going to be like that, maybe Hermione and Luna will appreciate all the fantastic things in my bedroom" Before freezing and turning bright red as his own words caught up to him.

Ron broke down laughing and ran past Harry's frozen form down the stairs, ignoring his shouts and pleading.

"Wait, RON!" Harry yelled, chasing the large boy down, both of them completely missing Percy's yelled order to quiet down as they went. "You can't tell anyone I said that!"

\----------

Hermione watched the small fire she was tending grow with a giddy smile, her cheeks pink from the cold. She was dressed from head to toe in warm knitwear to stave off the predawn chill and was waiting anxiously for the kettle to heat up. Next to her Luna sat half curled up into her side, an array of brightly coloured scarves wrapping her up like a mummy, leaving only her eyes visible. She smiled down at the younger girl fondly before looking around the campsite once more, as awed today as she had been when she'd first arrived over a week ago. In the early darkness before most people had even stirred in their beds the vast array of magical effects was breathtaking.

Her stay with the Lovegoods had been eye opening in more ways than one, firstly in that she was feeling a lot more charitable to some of Luna's creatures. While she was still convinced that Mr. Lovegood was only about 50 percent functional and she was still far from convinced about the veracity of wrackspurts. Things like Crumple-Horned Snorkacks though were seeming more and more likely to exist in some form or another. A creature with a natural notice-me-not field that affected magicals as well as muggles was hardly the craziest idea. They'd actually put together quite a lot of circumstantial evidence in the little book they'd started together on the train.

She hadn't realised how closed minded she'd been about magic either, much to her frustration. In all her reading the idea that other cultures might use magic in vastly different ways than the British just hadn't clicked for her. She raised her free hand and gave her fingers a tiny snap, admiring the flickering spark of turquoise light that lit up the morning. A tiny piece of magic, barely above a simple muggle magic trick all things considered. It was still something she'd considered virtually impossible a month ago, so she used it to remind herself she always had more to learn..

"Mmmhnn" Luna yawned, snuggling deeper into Hermione's side. "Tol' you wa' too early" She mumbled.

"Sorry to wake you" Hermione whispered back quietly, enjoying the gentle affection.

"S'okay" Luna murmured, stretching widely and glancing around at the slowly livening campsite around them. "Should we go looking for them yet?"

Hermione gave her a smug smile, "Of course not" She said, "I found their campsite yesterday and checked the most likely Portkey point, they should walk right by us"

Luna stared at the older girl with an absent smile for a few moments before her fingers launched out and she poked her sides. Hermione let out a brief shriek of far too loud laughter before muffling herself with a scarf. She gave the suddenly innocent looking Luna an embarrassed scowl before gathering the girl up in a hug and squeezing her tightly. She felt a little odd at first being so tactile with the younger girl, but in her defense Luna had started it and it wasn't like she was complaining. The odd girl had in the way she'd introduced physical affection into their friendship, although walking in on her in the bath had been a step too far.

Hermione turned scarlet and hid her face in the voluminous beanie on Luna's head, trying to shake off the burst of embarrassment and the image that came with it. She had actually rather enjoyed being able to do things like brush Luna's hair or simply hug the girl whenever the fancy struck her. It was one of the most peaceful parts of her day brushing the girls long dirty blonde hair out and putting it up under her mother's instruction. It was also maddening because the only other time she felt remotely like she did when she gathered Luna into her arms was when Harry did the same to her!

It wasn't like she didn't understand what she was feeling, her parents were always open to talk and she'd certainly read enough to recognise the symptoms. The problem she had was not having the slightest idea how to handle having a crush on two of her friends for completely different reasons. She wasn't ready to ask her parents something like that, and the other person she'd talk to about it was in her lap right now. So she'd settled on doing the only thing she could, ignoring it and hoping some sort of solution would present itself.

"You're a menace" She chuckled, shaking off the thought and releasing her.

Hermione picked up the whistling kettle and prepared a half a dozen cups of hot black tea humming softly as she worked. She had gotten one final letter from Harry yesterday, just a short missive to let her know when to expect him and she was pretty sure he should be walking by any minute. Just on cue she heard a very familiar voice start to drift closer as the sun finally peaked over the treeline and lit the campsite in a pinkish orange glow. She stood up quickly, brushing her jeans off and shucking the large beanie in a rush before pulling Luna as well. She got a bemused look but Luna obediently let her friend brush the grass stains off her and unwind the largest scarfs so she was visibly identifiable again.

"-aying we should put the tent up before we go hunting for them" Ron's voice drifted over to them, getting louder slowly.

"I'm afraid I must agree" Arthur Weasley's voice followed, sounding almost giddy. "I'll do my best but I'll certainly need a hand putting these marvelous muggle tents up"

"My tent sets itself up, which is why I think we should find Hermi-" Harry's voice cut off

Hermione looked up from where she'd been running her hands through Luna's hair to straighten it and let out an involuntary gasp. Harry had kept her up to date on most of what he'd been doing over the last 2 months but she hadn't been prepared at all. He was a little taller than she remembered and immeasurably better dressed in a dark green Weasley sweater over jeans and shoes that actually fit. What took her breath away though was simpler, it was the way he was walking. She'd known Harry for years and in all that time he'd made himself smaller when he moved like he was afraid of drawing too much attention. Today though he was standing tall and confident with a wide smile on his face and his hair swept back instead of carefully smoothed down to cover his scar.

Harry came around a bend in the tent city and froze as surely as if he'd been petrified, a look as wonder on his face. Down the path as if framed by tents Hermione and Luna were waiting. The dawn sun had just broken over the trees to their left and was lighting both girls up in a warm orange light. Hermione had grown over the summer and was a little taller and more sure footed than he remembered. Her bushy brown hair surprisingly tamed and tied into a simple plait, a bright knit sweater and pair of jeans completing her casual look. Luna stood next to her, with her naturally lighter hair and pale skin combined with a riot of colourful clothing she looked almost otherworldly.

Hermione's face lit up in a joyous smile that knocked the air out of Harry's lungs like a punch, she didn't seem to notice, springing towards him dragging Luna by the hand.

"Harry!" She exclaimed, wrapping him in a tight hug that he returned with vigor, neither seeming to notice the smaller blonde girl they'd accidentally crushed between them.

She leant back slightly, keeping her arms around his neck "Your glasses are gone!" she exclaimed, before realising she was looking up slightly." Are you taller than me now!?" She asked loudly.

Harry gave her a broad grin, "I finally got a bit of a growth spurt" He explained, "And I'm wearing contacts, finally got to visit a proper optometrist without the Dursley breathing down my neck"

"You do look rather nice without them" A small muffled voice came from between them.

Harry looked down in surprise and nearly leapt back when he saw Luna crushed between them, her hands pressed palm first against his chest and wide silver eyes looking up at him guilelessly. Hermione jumped back in an attempt to let Luna free, shivering slightly when she felt Harry's hand drift over her sides as he failed to let her go in time.

"Sorry!" She yelped.

Luna glanced back at her best friend and smiled dreamily with a steady blush creeping up her face "It's okay, it was rather pleasant" She admitted, making no move to step away or move her hands. "It was a nice contrast, you're nice and soft and Harry is actually quite firm" She explained.

A strangled laugh interrupted the quasi awkward moment and Harry stepped back sharply, giving Ron a dirty look over his shoulder. The redhead missed it though as he had started cackling like a madman and was barely being supported by Fred and George laughing their heads off. Arthur was looking away and clearly doing his best to suppress a fit of laughter himself. Harry sighed and gave the group of redheads a long suffering look before turning back and catching Hermione glancing between him and Luna with a complicated look on her face. He gave her a questioning one back, but she shook it off with a smile and gestured them all back to the fire.

"I got some tea ready, I knew you'd be coming past soon" She said happily, giving Ron a quick hug and jab to the ribs as he walked by and waiting till everyone had sat before handing out the cups. "Luna and I were thinking of helping you set up, then we can spend the day together before the game?"

Arthur nodded absently, sipping at the hot tea with a satisfied smile, "That sounds excellent, will Xeno be okay with that?" He asked Luna, who nodded back without silently.

"We told him we'd meet him at the press box, we've already got our tickets" Luna confirmed, flashing the ticket as proof.

A few minutes of comfortable silence passed while everyone warmed up and finished their tea. Only broken up by the occasional snicker and choked off laugh from Ron as the twins reenacted the moment Harry and Hermione realised they had an extra. The two of them jerking away from each other in faked shock and then switching to copying Luna's wide eyed look and repeating what she'd said. The good natured ribbing continued until Arthur finally got tired of it and told them to knock it off, before draining his cup and standing.

"Time to get moving I think" He said happily, shouldering his backpack again. "I can't wait to try muggle camping!"

\----------

Harry dropped into his seat in the top box of the stadium with a smile that would take a tragedy to wipe off his face. Next to him Ron was bouncing up and down in excitement, the omnioculars he'd given him as a gift already up and recording the lavishness around them. Harry looked out on the field thoughtfully, the conversation he'd had with the Elf Winky sitting heavily in his mind. He knew that Dobby was somewhat unusual by House Elf standards. He didn't think his friend would have quite so much trouble finding work though. As Mr. Weasley greeted the slowly arriving top box guests and Percy all but peed himself in excitement at rubbing shoulders he made a decision. If Dobby hadn't found work by the time they met again he'd offer to hire Dobby himself.

'All things considered' Harry thought dryly, 'Having someone trustworthy make my food and handle my laundry is probably a good idea'

"Ah, and here's Lucius!" Fudges voice cut through Harry's introspection like a knife.

He stood sharply and turned to where he'd heard the mention of the man he hated perhaps only third to Wormtail and Voldemort. In the row behind them edging towards three unoccupied seats was the Malfoy family. He skipped over Draco immediately, dismissing the sharp faced boy as a simple annoyance and after a long look doing the same to Mrs' Malfoy who looked as though she'd rather be walking through excrement. He caught the tail end of the obnoxious minister's loud praise for Lucius's charitable work.

"-very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital!" Fudge finished with a flourish towards the stiff blonde family.

"How-" Arthur started, teeth clenched before Harry stepped forward. Drawing the eyes of the Minister and Malfoy family while giving the fakest smile of his life.

"How generous" Harry said with blatantly false sincerity, not that Fudge noticed. "I'm not surprised though, Mr Malfoy has always been the charitable sort. I still remember in my second year he was handing out books at Flourish and Blotts!"

The look Lucius gave him could have cut steel, but Harry simply widened his smile so it was all teeth. Draco was giving his year mate a filthy look to match his father, though surprisingly his mother was actually directing her ire to her husband. In the middle Fudge simply looked confused, but was happy to go along with what sounded like praise to him.

"I hadn't heard about that!" He exclaimed, clapping the taller wizard on the shoulder and ignoring Lucius's wince at the contact.

"Yes well" Lucius began, "I try not to advertise all of my charitable efforts, I wouldn't want to come across as a glory hound" He directed at Harry with false smile.

"Absolutely" The younger wizard agreed, glancing pointedly at the house elf to their left. "After all you never know when things will have unintended consequences"

Lucius followed his gaze and narrowed his eyes imperceptibly, his hand tightening on the cane Harry knew contained a wand before turning back with his mask in place.

"Perhaps-" He started smoothly but was cut off by Ludo Bagman.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" The man roared over the stadium's noise assisted by a sonorous spell.

After that the rest of the night was a blur, he'd tried to keep half an eye on the Malfoy family but in the end gave it up as a bad job. They weren't going to act directly against him in such a public place and he'd gotten a genuine smile from Arthur for putting the swot in his place, even if no one else had noticed. It had gotten harder to focus when the Veela had arrived, although he found it curiously easy to shake off the pleasantly euphoric feeling they instilled in everyone. He'd tried to ask Mr. Weasley about it but with the noise and excitement of the match he'd only gotten a knowing look.

Once the players had the Quaffle though he'd stopped thinking about anything but watching the seekers move. The way they played was such a vast change from the schoolyard matches he was used to it was like night and day. He hadn't even realised it was legal to interfere in play to the degree both seekers were. Knocking Quaffles about to better position their team, diving between enemy chaser formations to disrupt their momentum and even drawing bludger fire to use themselves as battering rams. Harry resolved to try and integrate the maneuvers he was seeing into his own play, the image of drawing a bludger into Marcus Flints ugly mug sounding extremely satisfying.

Finally several hours later the group had reunited back at the Weasley and Potter tents, Luna and Hermione both looking windswept and passing a muggle notebook back and forth. Harry had set up beside Hermione with Ron on his other side and was watching the two with mild interest while everyone else loudly recapped the game.

"I think we should focus more on Krum" Luna said with uncharacteristic seriousness, "The Irish winning is nice, but the real excitement is with how he ended the match"

Hermione frowned slightly, but nodded in agreement and crossed out a few lines, "Okay so what about instead of-" Harry tuned out the conversation as they got further into it and turned back to Quidditch talk.

The partying continued on unabated, but several hours later the large group of Weasleys had dwindled down to just the four friends and Arthur Weasley. Ginny had headed to bed a few hours ago and the older brothers slowly drifted away to join various groups to continue partying. Finally Hermione put her quill down with a relieved sigh and shook her hand out. Next to her Ron and Harry were engrossed in sharing recordings from the game where they'd been looking at different things.

"Done!" Luna exclaimed happily, rolling the piece of parchment up and sealing it quickly.

Harry turned to ask them what exactly they'd been working on for the last few hours. Before he could open his mouth Bill and Charlie ran back into the area with grim looks and wands out.

"Good you're all still here" Bill said sharply, "Something's gone wrong, stay here" He rushed into the main tent.

Meanwhile Harry stood and moved over to his own tent, laying a hand on it and giving it a mumbled command before pocketing the now matchbox sized tent. By the time he'd turned back and caught his friends eyes Bill was back out with Arthur and Ginny in tow. The oldest Weasley child pointed off into the distance and Harry stepped forward to get a better look at what was happening. In the distance he could see 4 indistinct shapes spinning and twisting in the air, as they got closer it became clearer what they were.

"People" Ron whispered from next to him, sounding horrified.

"Are those...the people from the gate?" Harry asked quietly.

The Muggle man he'd seen that morning at the entrance along with what must have been his family were suspended in mid air. Beneath them a crowd of masked and black robed people were clearly keeping them levitated, twisting their bodies grotesquely for amusement. The older woman spun upside down and desperately tried to hold her nightdress up with one hand while the other reached for her children. Next to her a small boy who couldn't be older than 6 was spinning violently back and forth like a top. Occasionally a flash of light would fire out of the group, blowing up or setting fire to a random tent as they went.

"What the f-" Ron started, but was interrupted by his father storming past them towards the commotion.

"Stick together and get into the woods" He said tersely, his eyes never leaving the muggle family. His eldest sons moved up to his shoulders. "If you see Fred and George grab them, otherwise just keep moving away from here, I'll find you"

The usually laid back man gave Ron a deeply serious stare, making him straighten involuntarily.

"Look after your sister" He said solemnly, getting a strong nod back. "Let's go" He finished turning back and starting to run.

Ron grabbed Ginny's hand and turned to Harry, Hermione had grabbed Luna's and was waiting right next to him. Harry nodded and grabbed a hand each from his best friends and started heading towards the forest. They were forced to keep a firm grip on each other as moved as the crowd knocked them about. Finally they pushed through the mass into an emptier part of the forest and were able to take stock.

"Everyone okay?" Harry asked, giving the four a once over quickly before turning back to watch the way they'd come.

He got a series of affirmatives, including one he hadn't been expecting.

"I'm fine Potter, thanks for asking" A drawling voice sounded from behind a tree to his right.

The group drew together at the unexpected voice, surprised to see Draco Malfoy walk out from behind the tree completely unconcerned.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Ron asked viciously, drawing his wand.

"Careful Weasley" Malfoy said smugly, "I saw you all running around like blind owls, I just thought I could give you some advice"

"No one in their right mind would take your advice" Ron retorted.

Malfoy nodded thoughtfully, "Well I still wouldn't let that group see her" he said with a not at all subtle grin and nod at Hermione. "Be a shame if they caught you pet Mudblo-"

Harry was in front of him before the second word cleared his lips and the glowing wand at his neck silenced the blonde boy instantly.

"What are you doing Potter" He asked nervously, trying to project the same calm he had before.

"You're right," He said quietly, green eyes boring into Malfoy's silver-grey ones. "That group of scum definitely can't find Hermione, or any of us really" The wand twitched closer and Draco flinched minutely. "But I bet I know where your Daddy is Malfoy, I wonder if they catch up and I have you if they'd let us go?"

Harry stepped forward and slowly drove his schoolyard rival back into the tree he'd stepped out from behind.

"Or maybe" Harry mused, digging his wand painfully into Malfoy's collarbone. "I-"

"Harry" Luna's soft voice sounded from behind him and he felt a pair of small palms rest against his shoulder blades. "That's enough, Draco Malfoy isn't a threat here"

Harry stiffened briefly but relaxed and stepped back slightly, unintentionally stepping into Luna and feeling her wrap her arms around his midriff.

"Leave" He growled, gesturing away towards the commotion. Draco was more than happy to oblige, turning to flee without even a snarky comment.

After a few moments Luna released him and he turned, catching the eye of his friends and seeing none of the recrimination he expected for his outburst. Instead Ron and Ginny looked distinctly approving, and Hermione and Luna were both giving him knowing looks.

"Sorry" He started, "I just-" He cut himself off, "I'm too amped to deal with Death Eaters, that was over the top"

"I dunno, I think Malfoy could always use a little knocking around," Ginny said cheerfully.

"It's okay," Hermione agreed, although with none of the glee. "Just remember to direct it where it belongs, he's a...bad person, but he's not a Death Eater or anything"

Harry gave them a weak smile and squared his shoulders, giving Luna a squeeze on the shoulder as he passed her in thanks. The group wandered the forest carefully, avoiding any group they came across as carefully as possible. It was slow going, the sound of other groups running past them always nerve wracking. Finding Winky in the forest alone had been a surprise too, the poor thing clearly struggling against some sort of compulsion. Reluctantly they left her, unable to help and unwilling to stay still at the moment.

"They used to be called Brownie's" Luna suddenly spoke up as they pushed through the dark undergrowth. "House elves I mean. Wild Fae that liked to clean and help around the house unseen. If you tried to thank them then they'd leave and if you gave them clothes or gifts it banished them from your home"

Hermione nodded grimly, clearly having heard this story before, "Before Wizards decided they wanted free housekeepers" She continued in disgust. "Merlin forbid some decent being help of its own free will, no if you can't order it around and punish it what's the point? No one recorded exactly how they did it, but as far as I can tell from some anecdotal records it was some sort of dark ritual" Hermione was almost tearing up in frustration now, her voice getting rougher. "They captured a bunch of the poor creatures and magically bound them. If they fought their masters or tried to leave they'd die. After a few centuries of that they ended up like you see now"

Luna took over again in a sorrowful voice "If there are any free Brownie's left no one's seen them in centuries. There's some mention of them in old family books or really rare history books, but it's not common knowledge they were ever real creatures" Her lips twitched up slightly in a sad smile. "This Dobby fellow Hermione told me about is interesting though. I'd love to meet him, just seeing a spark of the old Brownie attitude in a House Elf of today would give me a bit of hope. If one wants his freedom back, maybe…"

"Merlin that's horrible" Ginny said gloomily, "How does no one know about this?"

Hermione snorted "Because a thousand years ago no one with the power to say anything cared" she said irritably. "Every record Luna has is from small family Grimoires. No recent history book mentions it because...Well would you want to imply every rich pureblood is taking advantage of a species enslaved by dark magic?"

Ron shook his head in disgust, pushing a branch aside to let his sister past,"That's so messed up" he asked with an offended look. "I always thought it'd be cool to have a House Elf, but Merlin…"

Harry held up a hand suddenly, "Shhh" he whispered, lighting his wand with a whisper and sweeping it across the clearing they'd come to the edge of.

The sound of the wind whispering through the trees was the only sound around them. Finally the noise of trampling footsteps and loud talking had faded and they were truly alone. Except Harry knew when he was being watched. 10 years at the Dursleys and 3 at Hogwarts, he knew when someone was watching him with less than pleasant intent.

"Who's there" Harry called out, stepping forward into the open area. Behind him the quartet followed, wands in hand and their own Lumos spells sweeping the area. For a moment Harry thought he'd been wrong, his instincts going haywire after being on edge so long.

"MORSMORDRE!"

The five stared in horror as a sickly green and black snake stretched up into the air and spun in midair, a skull appearing for the snake to slide through and out of the mouth. The ghastly image rose higher and higher while Harry remembered where he'd seen it before.

"The Dark Mark" He whispered, before being pulled sharply to the side, his friends all starting to move out of the clearing and dragging him with them.

"We have to get out of here!" Ron shouted with a horrified look on his face.

They barely made it 10 feet before a staccato series of pops echoed around the clearing. Two dozen wizards and witches had appeared around them, all with wands pointed at the 5 teenagers clustered together. Harry's instincts screamed and he lifted his wand to point at the nearest shadowed figure. Around him white wisps of magic appeared like firefly's filling the clearing with flickering light. He saw the wands around him light up in slow motion and in the midst of it all Flitwicks voice echoed through his head as clear as day.

"The shield charm is no special piece of magic, there's been thousands of variations over the millennia we mages have been using them and they all boiled down to the same thing. Think of something you want to protect, plant your feet and cast"

Around him his friends dove to the ground and a sudden crushing weight kept them there, like the air around them was suddenly weighing them down. Ron struggled manfully to lift a hand to drag Harry down with them but could barely get it off the ground. Harry didn't have to imagine, his entire life was on the ground around him and he was surrounded by people getting ready to throw two dozen unknown spells at them. The wands around them grew brighter, a uniform red glow clashing with the flickering white wisps that had sprung up around them.

"STUPEFY!" The people surrounding them cried in unison, a barrage of red light barreling at the downed teens.

"PROTEGO!" Harry's wand twirled once then slashed up to point into the night sky, a bolt of white light leaving his wand and exploding into a swirling bubble of magical energy surrounding the group of teens.

The clearing lit up white and a deafening stuttered crack like a dozen thunder claps rang out as the stunning spells slammed into the shield and exploded into red sparks.

"Stop!" a familiar voice called out, "STOP! That's my son!"

Harry stood for a long moment, a translucent shield rippling like water in a 5 metre radius around him. Slowly his friends got to their feet when they felt the weight lift off them, staring in awe at the flickering will-o-wisps surrounding them. Finally Hermione turned to Harry and reached up to grasp his face gently. Pulling his eyes off the crowd of Wizards and Witches that had just tried to attack them. Steely green eyes met hers and she had to push away the flutter in her stomach forcefully.

"It's okay," she whispered.

Behind her Ron stepped forward, reaching past Hermione to grasp his shoulder. Ginny stood next to him and smiled brightly, not an ounce of concern in her expression. Finally he felt a slender pair of arms wrap around him for the second time that evening. The little blonde having snuck between him and Hermione once again. Harry let out a deep breath and dropped his wand to his side, wrapping his loose arm around Luna and smiling gratefully at the other three.

"You're all okay" He murmured gratefully, "Thank Merlin"

A moment later Arthur Weasley burst into the group, checking them over one by one before pulling his youngest two into a crushing hug. The other 3 stayed together watching warmly as the father fussed over his kids while still keeping them firmly in his vision to make sure they were all okay.

"You're okay" He whispered to himself, "Harry, thank y-"

"Out of the way Arthur" said a curt, cold voice.

Mr. Crouch stepped forward with a half crazed look on his face and a sparking wand held in his hand. The rest of the Ministry wizards were closing in as well, slowly filling the clearing.

"Which of you did it?" Crouch snapped, glancing up at the floating skull with disgust.

"We didn't cast that!" Ron said, stepping out of his father's embrace. "Why'd you lot cast without checking anyway! This forest is full of people and that many stunners could have killed someone!"

"Do not lie, sir!" Crouch shouted, suddenly shoving his wand into Ron's face.

Ron's eyes went cross eyed and he froze, staring at the wand leaking sparks barely a foot from his nose.

"Barty" A woman in a woolen dressing gown whispered, taking a step closer to the group. "They're just kids Barty, they couldn't have-"

"If you don't take that wand out of his face" Harry growled from the side. "I'm going to take it"

Unfortunately Mr. Crouch was so maniacally focused on Ron he didn't seem to notice the air of violence starting to fill the clearing again.

"Now now" A wizard in a set of mismatched lime green pajamas said slowly, moving as if to put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "There's no need for that, Barty's just a little worked up"

The venomous look Harry sent him pushed him back into the crowd but before things could escalate further Arthur interspersed himself between his son and Crouch.

"Where did the mark come from?" He asked carefully, staring down his colleague warily.

"Over there" Hermione said quickly, pointing in the direction they'd heard the voice from. "Harry noticed something in the tree's, when we called out to it someone said something. An incantation I think"

"Oh I see!" Mr. Crouch said, turning his eyes and wand towards Hermione now. "How convenient! Just over in the tree's away from you lot!"

The man started to say something else but was cut off when Arthur stepped forward and grabbed him by the wrist, gently lowering his wand to point at the floor before things could escalate. Eager to avoid two department heads arguing, the rest of the Ministry staff spread out and lit their wands, searching the area Hermione had indicated.

"What are you doing Arthur!" He said coldly, "Are you interfering with an inves-"

"What I am doing" Arthur said carefully, "Is keeping you from making a very large mistake, look very closely at who you're accusing here Barty"

"Your family is not immu-" Crouch started again.

"My family has been steadfastly light for centuries" Arthur interrupted, before continuing meaningfully. "But even if they weren't you are about to publicly blame casting the Dark Mark on Harry Potter and a Muggleborn"

Before Mr. Crouch could respond a shout of triumph rose up from the bush where Hermione had directed them to.

"Aha!" Mr. Diggory's voice drifted back to them. "Found someone! Or - ah, blimey"

The man stepped out from the tree's carrying a tiny unconscious figure wearing a tea towel.

"Winky?" Hermione asked incredulously,

This shock seemed to finally knock Mr Crouch out of his delirious accusations, instead he was staring at the elf with a white face and blazing eyes.

"I - This is -" He said jerkily, before walking past Mr Diggory in a rush to investigate the area he'd just searched.

The sound of him crashing around the bushes searching for some other explanation put a pall of awkward silence over the clearing.

"Hard to believe" Mr Diggory said grimly, "His own elf of all things"

Mr Weasley scoffed, "Come off it Amos, there's no way she could have cast that. You need a wand at the minimum"

"Yeah" Said Mr Diggory "and she had a wand" He held up a wand and showed it to Mr Weasley. "Had it in her hand, so that's a clause three of the Code of Wand Use broken"

Amos and Arthur were sharing a significant look, but before they could start to question her presence further a loud pop interrupted. Ludo Bagman appeared looking much worse off than he had at the game, with tears in his robes and a sickly pallor.

"The Dark Mark!" He panted, "Barty! Did you find who did it, and what happened to her?" He pointed at the unconscious elf in Diggory's arms.

Mr Crouch had returned from his search white faced and empty handed, his hands twitching like he was looking to wrap them around someone's neck.

"Nothing" Mr Crouch scowled, "And my elf has been stunned Ludo, obviously"

"Stunned? What would you stun a house elf for?" He asked, then started comprehension blooming on his face. "You think she cast that?" He asked slowly, like they were all crazy. "That's insane, she'd need a wand to begin with, and who would even teach her how?"

"Let's ask," Mr Diggory said, placing the elf on the ground and taking Mr Crouch's lack of objection as consent.

The following interrogation left a sick taste in all the teens mouths, regardless of the circumstances Mr Diggory was being beyond cruel to the Elf. Hermione attempted to speak up once, to protest being needlessly aggressive with the poor young elf. Surprisingly Luna of all people gave her a gentle shake of her head not to interfere, whispering a promise to explain later. Until at last Mr Diggory brandished the wand they'd found in her hand and Ron spoke up.

"I recognise that wand" Ron piped up with a puzzled look on his face.

"This is your wand?" Diggory turning to look at him in disbelief, "Are you admitting to-"

"It's not mine, I've just seen it before" He said with an exasperated look at the man before glancing at Harry and Hermione. "Doesn't that look familiar?"

Harry looked confused for a moment before taking a closer look at the wand, "Is that?" He asked in surprise

"I think so," Hermione agreed with a disgusted look. "That's Draco Malfoy's wand, I've seen that thing pointed at me more than once"

The entire clearing froze and an uneasy look began to be shared by the Ministry staff that hadn't already left. Slowly all but the people directly involved in the current issue started to quietly make their excuses and leave, wanting as much plausible deniability as they could get.

"Are you sure about that?" Mr Crouch asked slowly, his eyes flicking back and forth as he put together the pieces in his head. "Winky!" He commanded. "Where did you find that wand?"

"I is...I is finding it back there!" She squealed, tears streaming down her face. "I is just picking it up off the ground, sir!"

"It wasn't her voice anyway!" Hermione spoke up too, "It wasn't very clear, but it was definitely deeper than her voice could go"

Mr Diggory had lost a lot of his commanding presence and was clearly getting nervous but continued regardless. "Well we should make sure this was the wand that cast the spell at least" He said unsurely, putting his wand to the tip of Draco's.

"Priori Incantato!" He incanted carefully.

A small grey shadow of the giant green monstrosity above them burst out and floated above their heads for a moment before Mr Diggory dispelled it. Mr Crouch was still staring at the ground with laser focus and had started to mutter quietly to himself.

"Well" Mr Diggory said, "I guess that proves it, this was definitely the wand used to cast it. Found in your own hands Elf, that's pretty damning"

"Amos" Mr. Weasley interrupted, "Think about it, even if she was capable of using that wand who would have taught her how to cast such a spell? Very few people left alive and free could have"

"Perhaps" Mr. Crouch said with icy calm, "Mr Diggory is implying that I'm in the habit of teaching my servants Dark Magic?"

"Sir" Mr Diggory said tremulously, "No...Of course not! I mean…"

"You have come very close to accusing me of all people of knowing how to conjure that mark" Mr Crouch continued in disgust. "I would hope my history would be ample evidence that I hate and abhor the Dark Arts and everyone who practices them?"

"Barty I would never suggest you were behind something like this!" He cried, turning as red as Arthur's hair.

"That's good to hear" Mr Crouch said, "Especially when an obvious answer is right there in your hand"

Mr Diggory looked down in confusion, seeming to forget that he held Draco Malfoy's wand for a moment and almost dropping it when he realised what was being implied. Arthur gave Mr Crouch a long measuring look before also taking a long hard look at the wand, coming to a conclusion of his own and sighing quietly.

"Winky" Mr Crouch asked loudly, "You say you found that wand in the bushes over there" He pointed, getting a violent nod from the elf. "Did you see anyone over there with you?"

"I is seeing no one sir...I is just finding the wand in the dirts, sir" She replied, tears streaming from her big eyes.

"It can't have been the boy" Mr Diggory said wildly, "Maybe an adult could have apparated out after casting, but a 14 year old couldn't have. And Winky would have seen him if he'd been there, besides, I'm sure Lucius Malfoy wouldn't let his only son just wander the forest while there are Death Eaters on the loose!"

"Actually" Harry spoke up, startling the adults who had seemingly forgotten they were all there. "Draco was definitely in the forest. We all saw him back in the first part near the stadium" Harry paused for a moment, thinking carefully.

Mr Crouch's eyes lit up in suppressed glee, "So he was in the forest! Did he say anything?"

"Yeah, he made a bad joke about what would happen to Hermione if those lunatics caught us" Harry scowled, "I sent him packing, but it was weird"

"Weird?" he asked.

"Well he just stepped out from behind this tree" Harry said slowly, focusing on remembering every detail. "But he was talking before we saw him like he'd, I dunno, been following us or something?"

"Harry" Mr Weasley said gently, "That's a very serious matter, if Draco Malfoy was in the forest and you suspect he'd followed you once, he might have done so again, are you absolutely sure?"

Harry glanced at his friends unsurely, but got only nods in response. "Yeah Mr. Weasley, I didn't think of it at the time but the way he just appeared was like he knew where we were gonna be, or he'd been following us until we stopped"

Mr Diggory looked like he wanted to start hyperventilating but Mr Crouch was clearly more than pleased to hear that.

"So we have the wand of a son of an Imperiused Death eater" Mr Crouch spat the word Imperiused with clear disdain. "Who is known to be in the area, sounds more likely than me teaching a house elf a Dark Spell eh Amos?"

"She didn't see anyone!" He replied a little wildly, "And we didn't find anyone stunned over there either! If it was the boy, then where did he go!"

Mr Crouch scowled at the wrench thrown into his theory and opened his mouth but was interrupted again by Harry.

"Invisibility Cloak?" He asked, thinking of his own safely stored in his tent. "I mean I know they're rare and expensive but…"

"Lucius could certainly afford a few," Mr Weasley mused.

"Besides" Harry shook his head, "It's not like Draco is some expert on following people secretly, if he didn't have something to hide himself we'd have noticed him...actually"

Harry locked eyes with Mr Crouch, an idea coalescing in his head. "I know how Malfoy's head works, we've been sort of rivals? Since we started Hogwarts." Mr Crouch nodded, "He loves to try and get us in trouble by either provoking or tricking us into doing something then alerting the teachers. He's tried it like 6 times since first year, what if he was following us maybe just planning on hexing us once we were away from the crowds where he might get caught"

"But you noticed something" Hermione cut in, "When we got to the clearing you stopped us, said you felt something"

Harry nodded, "Yeah I've always had a good sense for when someone's staring at me with bad intentions. So I called out and drew my wand, I'm wondering if he panicked and reverted to his usual ideas?"

Mr Crouch had been nodding along thoughtfully, a disturbing gleam in his eye as they spoke. "So you think he startled when you notice him and decided to just do something that might get you all in serious trouble"

"There are only the 8 of us here" Mr Weasley said quietly, looking carefully around them but seeing none of the crowd left. "His wand being here is more than enough evidence Barty"

"I completely agree, Children" He said suddenly, "What you've seen and heard here tonight is to be kept completely secret, don't even discuss it amongst yourselves."

He turned to Mr Diggory with a severe look, "If word of this reaches anyone I will know exactly who to look for Amos, don't do anything foolish"

"Barty...the minister will," Mr Diggory said quietly.

"Do nothing" Mr Crouch said sharply, "This is happening Amos, get on the broom"

A sullen nod was his only answer but it was apparently more than enough for him. "Alright, everyone head to your homes. Arthur meet me in my office...no. too open, meet me at my home tomorrow after 2pm. Amos, return to your duties and say nothing if I need you to testify to what you saw tonight I'll contact you." Finally he came to his elf and hesitated for a long moment. "Winky head home, we'll discuss your actions tonight in private"

Finally Mr Crouch gave Arthur a significant look and turned disappearing with a pop, Mr Diggory and Winky following shortly after. That left only the group of teens and Arthur Weasley with a slowly spreading smile.

"Well" He said, "Let's get back to the tent, hopefully your brothers have all made it back by now" With that he ushered the group in front of him, giving the glowing green flare one last look. He had to get back and make sure his family was safe, then get some much needed rest. After all, later today he had a serious chance to catch Lucius Malfoy with his robe open and he'd need to be sharp.

\----------

AN: This ended up being nearly 5000 words longer than I had planned, I'm glad I kept pushing through it though. Thanks for all the kind words on the last two chapters, I just wanted to let you know I appreciate it. Now this chapter I feel like I've left a little too much of the original books in them. This should be the last time it happens though, the Quidditch world cup was always going to play out similarly but the seeds of change I've planted here split the story off from canon pretty sharply.


	4. Adding Fuel

The first morning back at Hogwarts dawned far earlier for Ron than he'd ever dreaded it could. When Madam Pomfrey had told him to be at the hospital wing at 6am to start his assessment he'd briefly thought she'd been playing a practical joke on him. Unfortunately the disapproving look she gave him when he'd started to smile had shut that down quickly.

"Ugh" He groaned, rolling out of bed and sitting up wearily. "How does Harry do this every morning?"

"At first" A disgustingly cheerful voice cut in from nearby. "It was spite" Harry jerked the curtains on Ron's four poster bed back and leant against one of the posts. "Flitwick told me he doubted a teenage boy would have the discipline to get up so early so he wouldn't make it a part of my training"

Ron gave his sportily dressed best friend an incredulous look, "You fell for that?"

"In my defence" Harry laughed, "He'd just put me through an insane mental and physical ringer and I would have told him I could fist fight a dragon just to prove him wrong"

Ron chuckled and shoved the boy out of his area so he could get changed in peace. "Get outta here, you've got your test today and I've got mine" There was a pause and he felt more than saw Harry hesitate before leaving. "Neither of us need any luck so don't even say it" Ron stuck a thumbs up through the seam on the curtains. "Seeya at dinner"

"Yeah" Harry smiled softly, feeling more buoyed than he'd been when he woke up. "Seeya soon"

Ron listened as his friend jogged out of the room and only let out the breath he'd been holding once he was gone. Truthfully he was confident in his chances today, more confident in Harry's certainly but still confident. The issue was he didn't think he'd ever actually wanted anything the way he wanted to be a Healer. It was the first time in his life he wanted something beyond physical things, he didn't want to do this just so he could say he had. Their original plan to simply have someone who knew how to heal when things eventually went sideways had fallen by the wayside as the summer drew on.

"For them" Ron murmured, tightening his school tie and clasping his robe closed, "But also for me"

The ginger young man swept back the curtains around his bed and strode out of the dorm with sure steps. One way or another his first steps to becoming a Healer started today and it wouldn't do to be late.

His arrival at the entrance to the Hospital Wing was met with a Madam Pomfrey who had clearly already been up for quite some time and had no patience for his 'On the dot' late arrival. She marched up to him the second he arrived, glancing at the silver pocket watch that hung from her breast pocket with consternation.

"First rule" She said, "Whatever time I tell you to be somewhere you get there 15 minutes earlier. There's always prep work to be done and 'On Time' is late for a Healer" She took in Ron's hurried nod with a brisk nod and gestured to the small office she had in the back of the wing. "Get in there, dump the robe and roll up your sleeves. There's a spell to cleanse yourself of any foreign bodies written on the parchment on my desk. Read it, learn it and cast it, I want you back out here" She checked her watch again. "Two minutes ago without any chance of giving someone an infection"

"Yes Madam!" Ron said sharply, stepping past her and hurrying towards the back of the room. Shucking his robe and throwing it over his shoulder as he went. He opened the heavy oak door with his elbow, his hands too busy undoing the carefully buttoned cuffs and rolling his sleeves up past his elbows. He tossed his robe onto the stand next to the door and rushed to the large desk pushed to the side of the room. He drew his wand and scooped up the solitary piece of parchment sitting in front of the guests chair at the desk reading it over quickly.

"Purifico" He muttered to himself, reading the small description his teacher had written carefully. "A small horizontal swish and then a sharp pull back, as if your jerking the wand away from the target. Simple enough. 'Pu' 'Ri' 'Fi' 'Ko' purifico, purifico, purifico."

He took a moment to practise the wand movement before grabbing a quill from an inkwell sitting on the desk and shaking a dozen droplets of ink on the back of his hand.

"Purifico" He intoned carefully, following the wand movements and trying to picture his hand clean. A single droplet of ink shook slightly and disappeared into the ether, making Ron give a grunt of frustration. He focused harder on the image in his head of his pristinely clean hand and tried again "Purifico" Again a single one of the dozen drops disappeared

The answer to his struggle hit him like a brick and he almost rolled his eyes at the obviousness, he took a deep breath and stared down at his ink stained hand. This time instead of picturing a clean hand he focused on why he needed it to be clean, the images of infections he'd seen in books running through his head and sharpening his focus. He didn't want this spell to work so he'd be clean and tidy, he wanted it to work so his patients, his friends, would be safe from getting sicker from his treatment than they were from their injuries.

"Purifico" He murmured one final time, focusing on his need to cleanse himself and with a feeling like rough cotton being run over his entire body he felt the spell take hold.

He took a second to smile proudly down at his suddenly clean hands before shaking it off and heading back out into the ward proper, being greeted by Madam Pomfrey standing by a small desk stuffed into the corner of the room impatiently.

"Good" Madam Pomfrey said with an approving nod, "Visitors may be excused but if you're going to work in this ward I want that cast before you step through the doors in future. More importantly, unless they're in danger of dying on the spot cast it on yourself and your patient before treatment. An infection is better than bleeding out on the spot but not better than a few more second's discomfort, understood?"

"Yes Madam" Ron nodded.

"This" She held up a small books worth of parchment then slapped it down on the table. "Is your introductory test, I won't tell you what score you need to pass I simply want you to go through answering any and every question you think you can. If you don't know the answer or can't figure it out skip it and continue on" She gave him a firm look, "This test will take almost the entire day to complete, you're allowed to stretch your legs but expect to be working on that until after lunch, at which point we'll have a more hands on tests, understood?"

Ron's complexion was more closely matched to marble at this point but still he nodded shakily and took a seat, giving what he hoped was a confident grin. He got a tiny smile of encouragement back before he was shut into the corner and separated from the Hospital Wing by a white sheet and a silencing charm. He grabbed his quill and shakily wrote his name at the top of the ridiculously sized test.

'Magical healing has it's basis in the use of potions and charms to encourage the bodies natural healing process without the negative complications that forcing a body's cells to rapidly divide would usually cause. The ability for magic to (In cases not involving dark magic) provide a limited type of perfect regeneration but be incapable of healing the effects of natural ageing is known as what?'

Ron stared at the question for a long moment before a wide grin blossomed on his face, quickly writing 'Sulis Exception' in the line left for an answer. He'd been so worried that he hadn't stopped to remember the most important thing he'd come to know since he'd started learning healing at the end of last year. Just like his ability to memorise every Quidditch world cup winner for the last 300 years, Healing was fun for him, and when he was passionate about something it stuck.

6 Hours Later

Ron was wishing virulently that he hadn't been so confident after the first question because while it might not have a made a difference, it might have saved his ego from the beating it had taken today. He'd been able to answer, at least in part, most of the questions he'd come across in the massive booklet calling itself a test to what he thought was a decent degree. The problem he kept coming across was that he just flat out didn't know very much actual healing magic or what potions were actually called, almost all of his learning over the summer had been on anatomy and the body. When the bloody test asked him what needed to be done in the case of a patient mysteriously losing blood in spite of no visible wounds he knew to cast a charm that checked for internal bleeding, he just didn't know what it was called. Merlin forget the questions that asked him to describe how to cast a spell or brew a potion he'd never even heard of, he was fairly sure a Postea Sanguinis potion was a blood replenisher just based on the name. 'Pretty sure' didn't exactly fill him with confidence when this test was the most important one he'd ever taken, and maybe the only one he'd ever cared about passing!

"Time!"

He wasn't ashamed to say he jumped violently at the interruption, "Gah!" He choked out, banging his knees on the table as he tried to stand and draw his wand in one movement.

Madam Pomfrey stared with one raised eyebrow and held her hand out, "I'll mark this while you start on the next section"

Ron nodded wearily and handed her the booklet, glad as ever that it seemed to dry any ink he applied instantly, else the whole thing would be a sticky mess of smudges. He stood and stretched harshly, a few loud pops ringing out along with a groan of satisfaction. Outside the curtained off area three of the hospital beds had been pushed up against the back of the hall and had their privacy curtains and bedside tables removed. All of them also had a remarkably lifelike dummies on them with "Property of St Mungo's Hospital" written on the bottom of their feet in pulsing red ink.

"These were rather hard to borrow" Madam Pomfrey mused as she led the tired Gryffindor down to the end of the lined up beds, she clicked her fingers twice and he jumped when a small pop rang out and a house elf appeared holding a tray with food on it. "Eat while I explain"

Ron gave the diminutive creature a grateful smile, trying not to think too much about what he now knew about the beings and their lot in life. Nonetheless he needed to eat, so he grabbed the sandwich on offer and stuffed half in his mouth with gusto.

"These HealSim dummies are designed to simulate diseases and injuries in as realistic a way as possible in order to give Healers a way to train on things they may not have seen" Madam Pomfrey lectured, ignoring the sound of chewing beside her. "Never assume they show the whole truth though, simulations can only cover so much and I won't have you making mistakes due to arrogance learnt on these things"

Ron straightened unconsciously at the unspoken assumption that he'd be joining her once the say was done, feeling a spark of his confidence return after the beating the written test had given it.

"Today I'll be setting these to three unstated diseases, curses or injuries with increasing difficulty from left to right. If you think you know what each dummies might have you write it on the clipboard at the end of the bed" She held up the magically tethered wooden boards. "Assuming what you've written there is a real disease or injury it will reveal a potential treatment along with the potion or spell regimen required to heal it." At this she wrote 'Broken Leg' at the top of the board and he watched with interest as a potion with visual and smell description along with administration instructions appeared. "As you can see it's very thorough on describing the potion and will be the same with spells, providing the same level of detail I did for the Purifico spell. This particular test will be unusually marked so I want to be clear on this now, correctly identifying and treating all three dummies within the time limit would net a perfect score. Identifying all three problems but not being able to successfully treat them all would net a good score, however if your diagnosis is not 100% correct, but your treatment is this will also net a good score."

Ron gave her a puzzled look, "But wouldn't misdiagnosing someone and treating them be...bad?" He asked cautiously.

Madam Pomfrey nodded "Extremely, however this is a test of Diagnosis, Treatment and your ability to learn under pressure. If you mess up every diagnosis but still identify every potion correctly and cast a few spells you'd never heard of before today correctly it still wouldn't merit a fail. Now reference books are to the left of the leftmost bed if you need them and I'll be in my office grading your test" She turned to leave but paused, "Oh, and if you do identify and treat any of the dummies perfectly the clipboard will turn green. If all of them turn green before the three hour limit is up I'll disregard your score on this" She held up the test. "And take you on as an apprentice on the spot"

She continued on towards her office flicking her wand casually as she got to the door, a white sheet flying up to block off his part of the Hospital Wing from the rest and a 3 hour timer appearing in glowing ink on the barrier. The older Healer dropped into her chair gratefully and flicked the small mirror she had set up on the corner of her desk, a white sheen running across it before it cleared to show the testing area from a birds eye view.

"I must admit" A soft elderly voice started from the door, "If one had told me Mr. Weasley would take so well to such a...scholarly discipline I might not have believed them"

Madam Pomfrey looked up with a warm smile, "Honestly Albus, when I first agreed to test him I was impressed with his heart and his ability to think outside the box. I never suspected he would take to the academic side so well" She glanced at the mirror again before turning it to face her older friend and boss. "And yet, it seems to almost speak to him"

On the mirror Ron had a large textbook hovering by his side open to a page he was referring to periodically, as Dumbledore watched he stepped forward and tilted the dummies head to the side revealing a dark red mark hidden by it's 'hair'. The young man smiled excitedly and turned to the floating book flicking through pages with abandon before flicking his wand and sending it back to the small bookshelf set into the left wall.

"Indeed it does" Dumbledore mused quietly, a proud smile on his wizened face. "Do you mind if I ask what exactly the simulated maladies will be?" He asked.

"A simple concussion for the easiest" The healer explained clinically, "The middle will simulate the effects of exposure to Jotunn's Heart, and the last is a curse that will have some very sudden onset symptoms in the last hour, how he handles the shock will determine a lot of his marks"

"Excellent!" The Headmaster exclaimed, "May I stay to observe, if that isn't an imposition?"

Poppy simply gestured with a smile and watched as the eccentric man flicked his wand and dropped down into an impossibly comfortable looking purple armchair. Even after working with the man for decades sometimes his grasp of conjuration and transfiguration made her head hurt, honestly who else could just create complex items on nothing more than visualisation and raw willpower. Even a master of the art like their Professor McGonagall would need to at least take a moment to steady herself and set the image in her mind and would certainly not be able to add the level of detail Albus did with a single flick. She shook her head and started on marking the test she had laid out before her ignoring the rustling sound of a bag of some unnamed candy coming out of Dumbledore's robes, if she started lecturing him on his sugar intake again she'd never finish this.

Inside the Testing Area

Ron had been working for nearly 2 hours now based on the 'Doom Clock' as he'd dubbed it counting down silently behind him. The first bed had taken him nearly half an hour to properly diagnose and when he'd realised what it was he'd wanted to kick himself. The 'Patient' had been nauseous with a headache and seemed to be having trouble staying awake, after finding a suspicious red mark and lump on it's head he'd gone mad looking for diseases that cause swelling around the head. Only to nearly slap himself when he remembered that Madam Pomfrey had said there'd be injuries as well as diseases and curses. He'd seen the symptoms a dozen times at home when he or his brothers had fallen off their brooms or roughhoused a little too much on the stairs. It had taken barely 10 minutes afterwards to get the right potion he could remember the smell of from his own childhood and a further 15 to learn an extremely simple diagnostic charm that was used to see if there was any swelling on the brain.

He'd moved swiftly onto the second and that was where he was stuck, he knew that the dummies was having trouble breathing and that there was a light blue glow starting to creep from his fingertips and toes towards his chest. Unfortunately putting that on the clipboard didn't tell him anything and he couldn't seem to find any reference to a blue glow that moved in from the extremities and was cold to the touch. It was swiftly reaching the point where he would simply have to move on to the third bed as he was down to his third hour and wasn't any closer to finding anything. The thought struck a sour note with him though, test or not, dummies or not the idea of simply letting someone go untreated was just wrong. By the same note though simply leaving the last dummy untreated was virtually the same thing, focusing all his attention on this second dummies and never even looking at the third was just as bad as leaving the second unfixed.

Ron growled to himself and glanced back and forth between the last two before finally coming to a decision, pointing his wand at the edge of the blue line rising towards the torso of the second dummies.

"Calesco" He incanted firmly, focusing as hard as he could on his wish to warm this thing back up and halt the spread of blue flesh. To his surprise the blue growth actually seemed to retreat slightly in response.

Taking advantage of the small lifeline he'd been given Ron spent the next few minutes casting the warming charm with as much force as he could on the dummy, pushing the blue infection back to covering just the feet and fingers. Giving one last look of regret at the unsolved bed and praying his grades on the written test were up to snuff before he turned to the third bed and stepped forward just in time to catch a faceful of simulated blood. He stared in shock as the dummy thrashed and blood started to seep through it's dressing gown and pour from it's 'mouth'.

"Wha-What!?" He shouted, rushing forward and casting a simple cleaning charm to clear his vision, taking in the horrifying sight before him as clinically as he could. "Losing too much blood" He said, rushing back to the potions cabinet and grabbing two of the marked blood replenishers and hoping he'd been right about their latin name, not that he had much choice under the circumstances.

"Petrificus Totalus!" He incanted harshly, needing the dummies still so he could administer the potion.

It took a fair bit of doing but after a terrifyingly long moment he managed to pry the petrified dummies jaw open and pour a blood replenisher down it's throat while it visibly strained against the magic and a sheen of blood seeped through its every pore. Ron took a deep breath and summoned a book on curses over quickly, keeping half an eye on the stream of blood slowly pouring out of one dummies while the other's blue glowing infection moved ever closer towards its heart. It took nearly 45 minutes of reading, warming charms, blood replenishers and cleaning charms but finally Ron found a curse that sounded like it fit the damage being done to his patient and he scribbled it quickly on the bloodstained clipboard at the end of the bed.

Sudore Sanguin was a rather nasty curse that was designed to force a person to sweat their blood out over the course of several hours, getting faster and faster as time went on. Thankfully it had fallen out of fashion in the 1900's thanks to a rather brilliant Healer at the time developing a counter curse specifically for it after his cousin was murdered by someone using it. Ron read the spell description carefully not noticing that he had less than 15 minutes left in his test as he devoted himself fully to keeping the simulated people in front of him 'alive'. As the timer ticked down it's final seconds Ron let out an exhausted cry of triumph as the third dummies finally stopped leaking fake blood and the clipboard at the end turned green. He turned back to the second with another warming charm on the tip of his tongue but was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder, he looked back to find Madam Pomfrey with the warmest look he'd ever seen on her face.

"Time" she said kindly, swishing her wand back and forth, setting the area back to rights and erasing all evidence of the pools of blood he'd been stumbling through for the last hour.

Ron half fell against her in exhaustion and she happily lent the taller boy her shoulder, half carrying him to one of the beds and helping him sit on it. After handing him a glass of warm coffee in hopes of perking him back up again she stepped back and held up his written test in front of her proudly. The redheaded young man took a deep draught of the bitter liquid but aside from a grimace it did seem to perk up slightly as the caffeine hit his system.

"Get used to that, sometimes you'll need to run on it" Pomfrey said sardonically, "Pepper up isn't always available"

Ron chuckled tiredly, "Does that mean I passed?"

"Yes" Madam Pomfrey said simply, smiling proudly and holding up his test. "This test it what they administer to Hogwarts graduates entering the healing profession, it's called the MHAT or Magical Healing Admissions Test and the average 17 year old with 3 more years of schooling than you will get a 5.0, you, with 2 months of study got a 3.8"

Ron's face fell slightly at that, "Wait so I failed?" He asked in confusion.

Madam Pomfrey shook her head, "Compared to an adult trying to get into St Mungo's sure, but for a 14 year old who doesn't particularly like studying and with 2 months warning that is beyond exceptional. The only students I can think of that might have scored better on such short notice are the top 5 in their year." Seeing his still dejected look she bulled on and started to speak more firmly, "And none of them could have managed what you did in there" She pointed at the three now spotless dummies.

"I couldn't even figure out the second one" Ron mumbled sadly, still stuck on his score being below average.

"Ronald Weasley!" Pomfrey suddenly barked, bringing his head up sharply as if he'd been slapped. "Even if a 3.8 was bad for someone your age, and it most certainly is not. Your performance on the physical was more than good enough that I would simply have disregarded it entirely had it been necessary."

"But you said-"

"I said that to encourage you, nothing more" She said sharply, "Mr Weasley you kept a man from bleeding out while simultaneously treating the symptoms of a disease you did not know while also researching the treatment of the first man's affliction. You successfully found, learnt and cast the countercurse while juggling potion administration and casting an unrelated spell. Had this been a real situation all three of these men would have survived and it would have been entirely due to your actions!"

"I didn't fix the second one th-!" Ron argued back but was cut off when his teacher grasped his shoulders firmly and forced him to meet her eyes.

"You kept the symptoms from killing your second patient until time ran out, at which point another more experienced healer" She gestured at herself. "Arrived and took over treatment which was enough to save his life" She released him but kept their eye contact. "You are exhausted and perhaps I was too harsh in saying that so many other students would have scored better on the written test"

Ron flinched at that minutely, not willingly to verbally acknowledge that his insecurity at not being good enough once again was what was fuelling his frustration.

"So let me be absolutely clear" The healer stood straighter, a familiar heat filled the Hospital Wing, as hot as a furnace and yet now it felt almost energising to him. "Even if every one of those students were to turn up in this room right this second with a perfect score on this test" She dropped the packet to the floor carelessly. "I would still not take them as my apprentice, I will only accept you"

Ron felt as if time had frozen for a moment and his breath caught in his throat while a thousand moments where he'd thought he wasn't good enough flew through his mind. His older brothers finding their passions so quickly and excelling effortlessly, Hermione's brilliance and perfect marks overshadowing his own efforts without even noticing and looming largest of all was his best mate. Harry Potter, standing above them all with his wand held skyward and holding off two dozen grown witches and wizards with a basic shield and so much sheer willpower that it crushed them all against the ground as a side effect. He'd spent so long comparing himself to them all at what they were best at and for the first time in his life he felt a weight of expectation he'd put on himself lift off. He didn't need to out-study Hermione, out-cool Bill, out-prank the twins or out-fight Harry, because he was going to be the best at what he was good at.

A watery smile bloomed on his face and he had to clear his throat to steady his voice, "Thank you" He said proudly, "When do I start?"

\----------

Hermione stood silently outside Professor Babblings quarters with a concerned frown on her face and a half gnawed off thumbnail still in her mouth. She'd arrived here 10 minutes ago heading straight over after breakfast and arriving quite early, assuming that Luna's absence from the morning meal was simply to girl getting a headstart on arriving for their test. Unfortunately the blonde girl was nowhere to be seen and it was starting to worry her, Luna could be eccentric but if she promised Hermione something she'd always followed through, though admittedly not always in a way she'd expected. Thankfully with just a few moments to spare the girl rushed around the corner with a half panicked look on her face, a piece of toast half crammed into her mouth and something missing that Hermione couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Sorry!" She exclaimed through a mouthful of bread, "The Nargles played a terrible trick this morning, took my all of my warm clothes somewhere!"

Hermione frowned in confusion, "Nargles?" She asked, realising the odd thing she was missing was her Hogwarts cloak, only clad in her uniform shirt and skirt. "Luna you must be freezing, here" She swept her own cloak off and draped it around the smaller girl, casting a quick warming charm on them both for good measure.

Before Hermione could question her further on how Nargles, a potentially fictional creature that Luna described as tiny and mischievous could have carried off human sized clothes Professor Babbling opened the door in front of them suddenly. She gave the two a once over and started slightly at the view of the smaller Ravenclaw half hidden by the larger Gryffindor cloak. She shook it off quickly though, gesturing the two into her apartment and talking as she led them through.

"Today I'll be giving you both a written test and Miss Granger a practical test" Babbling said, directing them both to opposite sides of the table they'd sat at before summer. There were 2 neat piles of parchment in front of each spot and a pair of the classrooms chairs had been dragged in for seating. "Miss Lovegood your test will be extremely comprehensive, covering the entire third year curriculum from start to finish, how far you get through it will determine both whether I accept young Miss Granger here as an apprentice but also whether you will be allowed to enter the fourth year class or not."

The teacher turned to Hermione and a much sterner look overtook her face. "Your written test will be rather different, I'm already confident in your ability to read and retain both Runic languages and their meaning and functions. Instead you will be given a variety of problems that you will need to solve with a Rune Cluster, your marks will be based on how efficiently you complete each task with extra credit given to any issues you foresee and solve with written explanation for why and how" Seeing Hermione's face light up at the challenge and open her mouth to ask questions she held up her hand. "Keep in mind, if you turn in that with only one problem solved no matter how incredibly perfect the answer you will fail. A Runes Mistress must be capable of working on multiple requests simultaneously, finishing one perfectly and forgetting the others will see you without clients in very short order" Seeing the girl subside she nodded in satisfaction. "Your practical test is just as important, I'll be taking one of your designs from the first test and asking you to make it in it's entirety. Make your answers too long on your written and you may not have time to actually achieve your intended effect, make the answers too simple and your practical result may not be thorough or interesting enough to pass"

Hermione slowly turned whiter and whiter as Babbling continued, not quite sure how she would be able to manage controlling her love of answering questions because if she went too far she might make it impossible for herself to finish her next test. Luna gave her a reassuring smile over the table but not even the sight of her best female friend encouraging her while wearing her cloak could knock her out of the idea she might be about to sabotage herself.

'Not that her wearing your clothes isn't...interesting' A small voice whispered to her, 'After all one of Harry's Quidditch Jersey's ended up in your trunk for a good reason didn't it?'

Professor gave her a reassuring smile, "I truly believe that you'd make an excellent apprentice Miss Granger. However, you will need to prove to me today that you're capable of both limiting yourself and thinking outside the box in regards to Rune crafting" She gestured to a half completed project on her personal desk at the back of the room. "That is a request from a client that need a tablet insert that's capable of of transporting any food put on it onto a matching insert he'll be placing inside his workshop. He works on classified magical research with some extremely complex Non Disclosure agreements involved and can't have any magical being, house elves included, enter or leave his workshop when he's working. He also tends to work for days straight without stopping, this is the sort of thing you'll be called on to make if you achieve your mastery. While I'm sure he'd be grateful if I made it detect all common poisons and toxins on top of simply following his request, if doing so would put me over time or over budget it would be foolish to attempt to do so."

"I understand Professor" Hermione swallowed nervously but steeled herself, an idea of how to manage her habit of overdoing it already forming in her head.

"Very good" Professor Babbling nodded and directed the two to the order they'd be completing their written work and tapping the table once to create a wooden divider in the centre. "Alright, if you have any last questions ask them now, I'll be putting a silencing charm on the table afterwards to prevent any distractions" She was met with two negative responses, "Very well, Miss Lovegood you have 6 hours to complete an entire years curriculum, Miss Granger we will be starting your practical in 4 hours" she tapped the divider one last time, putting a small countdown on either side and moved back to her own desk to continue her work.

Luna

Considering how poorly her morning had started Luna was in a remarkably good mood, part of that was the test she was currently skipping through like it was a sunny day at the park. An introduction to runes was nothing particularly difficult when you had Hermione Granger teaching you the theory and you were, in her humble opinion, in Ravenclaw for a very good reason. The other was that even though she'd woken on the first morning back at Hogwarts to some of her things mysteriously missing from her belongings, again. For the first time since things had started vanishing in her first year she hadn't been scolded, given weird looks or even punished for 'not being prepared' or 'being improperly dressed'. Hermione had taken one look at her without a warm coat on a cold day and even though she knew she knew the older girl had been waiting anxiously for her she'd just given her her own cloak, no questions asked. She'd known they were friends but a small part of her had been afraid that when they got back to Hogwarts that she'd be pushed aside or forgotten. She took a moment to snuggle into the too big cloak she was wearing and smiled brilliantly at the blank wall she knew was hiding a no doubt stressed Hermione from her.

'Wait a moment' She thought suddenly, her forehead creasing in confusion. 'That's not right'

On the current page of her test was a question that most certainly was not part of the 3rd year curriculum, she would know she'd read Hermione's breakdown of the year from start to finish several times. Instead it was a question about the practical application of combining the Elder Futhark rune Kaunaz with Algiz and what format you would carve them into something to get the desired effect. Luna glanced at the teacher working on her own projects and only occasionally glancing up to make sure no funny business was occurring and tilted her head in confusion. Practical uses for the runes weren't touched on until fourth year, it gave the teacher time to figure out if anyone in the class was careless enough that they shouldn't be allowed to use such a volatile type of magic. Of course Hermione had blitzed through memorising Elder Futhark and had been granted a minor exemption to start practising her carving with the promise she wouldn't attempt to charge any of the rune clusters she created. So either this was a mistake and Professor Babbling had accidentally added a question meant for her friend, or the rune mistress was planning something. Deciding to put the extra studying she and Hermione had done together to good use and assuming that this was some sort of extra credit Luna put her head down and continued working.

'Okay so Algiz is protection and Kaunaz is fire in the context of malady and death so this obviously meant to be a rune cluster that protects from fire' Luna thought quietly, scratching the two in ink onto a piece of scrap parchment. 'But that's way too obvious, and even a third year would know that norse is just like english, subject first then object after. So if you wanted something protected from fire it would be Algiz Kaunaz linked by a charging rune and if I wanted something protected by fire it would simply be reversed'

Slowly a series of optional rune clusters spread over the scrap parchment along with simple idea for how such a simple cluster could be used in a way that wasn't obvious and boring. Her eyes widened suddenly and a mischievous grin crossed her face, the question just said practical applications of combining the runes, it didn't say she couldn't apply them as the basis of larger cluster in a more interesting way. A careful sketch slowly started to appear in the answer section of a pair of gloves with both Algiz Kaunaz and Kaunaz Algiz linked in a square around a simple activation rune tied to an activation phrase to provide the basis of the cluster.

'If I have both versions activated on the same pair of gloves it should provide both a protection from fire to the person wearing them and let the gloves burst into flames on command' Luna thought cheerily, finishing her quick sketch with a flourish and writing her planned use for the gloves next to them. 'Not particularly useful in everyday life, but if you happen to be handling salamanders or ashwinders it could be used to keep them calm and protect yourself at the same time!'

Luna quickly flipped through the pile of parchment to see if she could find any more of the same kind of question and was relieved to find several more, a hint of suspicion entering her mind. There was no time to dwell on it now that she knew there were much more interesting questions hidden in between the rest though, this redo of stuff she already knew just got interesting.

Hermione

Hermione's plan to keep herself from going overboard on this test was really quite simple, she was going to answer each puzzle as simply as possible until they were all done. Then go back to the first and flesh them out one by one until either time ran out or she had every last one of these fascinating puzzles written out to her own standards. Professor Babbling might have a point that she had a habit of going past what was required and perhaps she did give her teachers a little more reading than they necessarily asked for. If she wanted proof that Hermione could write to the lesson requirements though than she was gonna get it, she'd worked her butt off all summer to open her mind to things outside of what was written in books and she wasn't going to let that work be wasted because she belaboured a point unnecessarily.

'Not that I can't see the irony in planning and sticking to a study guide on 'opening my mind' She thought with a wry grin. 'Okay, first question'

'Request for 1 (one) ring that will cool noticeably when touching an item that contains poisons or toxins, primarily for use in detecting such in drinking apparatus. Must fit on ring sized at 48mm circumference and be made of either yellow gold or platinum'

'Okay this seems fairly straightforward, gold is a better magical conductor but high carat gold is soft and might damage the rune...unless I make it unbreakable?' Already Hermione could feel herself getting pulled onto tangents, so she forced herself back onto the basics and quickly sketched them out. 'Ansuz for insight, Kenaz and Uruz reversed to focus insight onto disease or sickness wrap it all around Isa to provide the cold effect, there, simple and to the point.'

4 Hours Later

Unknown to both girls the mess of parts that looked like a half completed work was actually something that Professor Babbling had completed herself in preparation for exactly this event. It provided a simple one way viewing window so she could watch the work being done by her students within this room as if watching from over their shoulders. It was an ingenious invention, even if she did say so herself, as it let her follow along with both trains of thought as they worked rather than simply seeing the end result when the tests were handed in. So far she'd been impressed, Miss Lovegood had found her first little test and after a moment had jumped onto it with admirable enthusiasm, although the item she laid out had very narrow use it was exactly the sort of thing she expected from the young Ravenclaw. Miss Granger had also started off on the right foot, visibly restraining herself from expanding on a theory unnecessarily and as a result was entirely done with her basic answers. She had already finished fleshing out most of her ideas in interesting ways as well and Bathsheda was actually rather proud of her idea to pair the two girls together as it had clearly expanded the older Gryffindor's horizons.

The teacher smiled slightly, already knowing which of the designs her potential apprentice had created she'd be asking her to create. "Okay" her voice broke through the silencing charm on half the table as she'd intended when she cast it, "That's time Miss Granger"

Hermione looked up sharply and seeing the timer flashing at zero gave her papers one last sorrowful look before dropping her quill and pushing the stack away from her.

"No time to fret Miss Granger" Babbling reassured her walking over to observe her writings, pushing aside a few pieces of paper and pulling out the one she wanted from the pile. "You have 2 hours to create this to the best of your ability" She tapped the sketch of what appeared to be a simple pair of matched necklace's.

Hermione gave her an incredulous look, "I...I don't have any jewellery here to use!" She exclaimed turning bright red.

Professor Babbling smiled slyly, "Not to worry Miss Granger, I prepared for every eventuality" She hadn't, but as soon as she'd seen the design she'd secretly requested a house elf leave and quickly get it made by the jeweller in Hogsmeade, it was simply too interesting not to. "That is both an excellent idea and very cleverly planned out, if it works as intended and your written passes muster it will be the first rune cluster I have you patent as my apprentice."

Hermione narrowed her eyes and nodded slowly, "You were watching what I was doing" she said slowly, "There's no way you'd be this sure what you wanted me to make otherwise"

Professor Babbling smiled mysteriously and handed her a silver link bracelet, necklace and jewellery carving kit. "Two hours Miss Granger" taking the rest of the papers to her desk to go through more carefully she left the brunette to her own devices, casually resetting the timer with a flick of her wand.

Hermione stared down at the small pile of silver jewellery on the table in front of her and tried to force herself to start working, unfortunately the fact that her teacher had somehow organised to have an exact replica of her sketch created on the fly had stumped her. Two delicate silver chains she'd have to enlarge in order to carve properly were resting side by side with a matched pair of pendants set to the side awaiting their own adjustments. She was desperately hoping that the professor hadn't stopped to think about the minor details she'd added in a fit of pique while drawing them, after all a crescent moon and a lightning bolt carved into the cover of a leather bound book could mean anything!

'Nope!' Hermione denied as loudly as possible in her head, 'Not the time, not the place, not the anything!'

She turned her attention back to the work in front of her and shoved everything except the clinical use of a tiny carving kit and switched her mind off as best she could. Slowly the pendants were filled with tiny carvings of Runes linked together carefully, once they were done she carefully put them aside and levitated the chains up to a comfortable height and started on them. Inscribing them link by link with single minded determination until the two delicate silver chains could hold half a tonne of weight, couldn't melt, freeze, break or be taken off by anyone except the owner themselves. Finally she used an incredibly careful carving to connect the pendant to the chain and a minute binding rune onto the interlocking section, allowing the magic attached to each section to affect the other without needing them to be a single piece of material. A glance at the timer revealed she had somehow mindlessly completed her planned work with nearly 30 minutes to go, she briefly considered finishing early but something she had thought of but hadn't written down was niggling at her.

'It's inappropriate, just because he won't understand doesn't mean no one else will' She considered carefully, 'Luna might freak out, I haven't exactly asked her about any of this...but if it works it'll bind all three items together and I don't have to give them out now, I could wait until I've felt out how they feel about it?'

It took 5 more minutes of internal arguing before she decided to throw caution to the wind and complete her design with all parts included, even the one she hadn't written down.

She raised her hand to get her teachers attention and took a deep breath. "Professor Babbling, I need something else to finish this properly"

"Oh?" She received a raised eyebrow in response, "Not according to your design plan there, did you forget something?"

"No" Hermione shook her head, refusing to blush under the circumstances, "It was something I left out of the final design due to lack of time, it was supposed to be a...binding piece of sorts. It'll provide a better base for the connection between these two"

"Very well, what do you need?"

Hermione swallowed loudly "I need another silver chain-"

"Easily done" Professor Babbling said calmly, another identical chain appearing on the table nearly instantly

"And...a small amount of Luna's hair, a few millimetres or so thick and as long as possible"

The eyebrow got higher, "Her hair?" She glanced at the younger girl and gave Hermione a knowing look, "Miss Granger I'm glad you took my words on expanding your horizons so seriously, but I hardly think this is the time to-"

"No" Hermione interrupted, "It's not like-, well it sort of is-" She took a deep breath, "Please, it'll make sense when I'm done"

Professor Babbling gave her a careful once over and she tried to maintain her serious look as much as possible, finally the older witch caved and reluctantly stood to walk over to the hidden part of the desk.

"Miss Lovegood" She said brusquely, noting with an approving look that the girl was already simply rereading her earlier work. "For the final part of Miss Grangers test she has stated she needs a lock of your hair, keeping in mind that you do not have to conse-"

"How much does she need?" Luna interrupted, meeting the professor's eyes with a dreamy seriousness that would have looked out of place on anyone else.

"Are you sure?" Bathsheda asked carefully, "You don't know what exactly Miss Granger will be using it for, and hair can be a powerful magical reagent"

"I trust her" Luna smiled sincerely, "If she wants it, it won't hurt me"

Professor Babbling simply shook her head in exasperation, "A few millimetres thick and as long as possible please" After receiving the carefully detached strands of silky blonde hair she gave the girl a long look. "You two are really quite close aren't you, even after such a short time?"

Luna didn't deign to answer such an obvious question but she did give the teacher a wide smile and nod before turning back to her proof reading. The Runes teacher returned to the other side and carefully passed off the bounty, watching with interest as it was carefully laid out with a single strand separated and laid on top of one of the necklaces. Hermione ignored the Professor now blatantly watching over her shoulder and cut an equally thick batch of strands from her own head and laid a single strand over the other necklace. First she wound the single strands carefully through the interlinked silver chains and ended them by wrapping the loose remainder around the pendant and tying them off in a small knot. The new silver chain was laid out and then cut into two equal lengths with a cutting charm, half of a series of new runes carefully inscribed along one, the the other half completed on the other. Then with slow methodical movements she grabbed both her and Luna's thick locks of long hair, laid the halves of the silver chain into each lock and began to twirl them together in a tight braid that eventually twirled back in on itself into the form of a bracelet. Not for the first time Hermione thanked the Gods that Luna had been within earshot of her mother when she'd first asked her to help with her hair. She'd have never been able to do anything with this precision without all the practice over the break.

"Miss Granger-" Professor Babbling started slowly, once Hermione had finally laid down her completed work.

"I know it's weird." Hermione interrupted, "I just can't...it just makes sense" She finished lamely, her eyes running fondly over the three pieces of jewellery, two necklaces laid on either side of a bracelet made up on blonde and brunette hair braided over a silver chain. The necklaces were already starting to glow faintly the winding runic script slowly filling with gleaming silver light, once they'd finished charging off ambient magic they'd be ready to be worn.

The older witch swallowed and spoke very carefully, "They're a remarkable set, even without your last minute addition I'd have passed you on those two alone"

Hermione froze for a moment before shaking her head, "No" She said her voice heavy with unspoken meaning, "They were meant to work as a set of three, at least" She paused and gave the teacher a weak smile, "that's how I picture it working best"

Her eyes stayed locked on the bracelet, the only part that hadn't started to respond to the magic all around them. It was simpler than the necklaces, with only the most basic of the connecting enchantments the other two possessed, allowing the wearer to find the connected pendants and be irremovable by any except the wearer. Instead of the direct defences built into her necklaces though it's power was focused into a rune intertwined with the connection to the pendants, Othala, a rune denoted to intangible wealth. It could mean several things, from a sacred ancestral land to simply the love of a family member but in context of what she'd designed here it was rather simple, the bracelet provided a powerful place of safety for the pendants, and their owners.

Hermione had always firmly believed in her ability to protect herself, and certainly she didn't need anyone to protect her from your average everyday dangers. She could match wits with nearly anyone in the castle, bar a couple of the teachers and she hadn't shied away from punching Malfoy in his arrogant face last year either. The difference between a schoolyard bully, a barely above average intelligence dog (no matter how massive) and a cell of well trained and well funded terrorists though was so far outside her comfort zone she couldn't even see the shoreline. That was why, aside from any romantic fantasies she might have had she had built the foundational bracelet into the design of her necklaces. She was a scholar at heart, her strengths were in books, planning, creation, not on battlefields blowing things up and she wasn't too big headed to admit she trusted Harry's ability to protect her more than she trusted her own skill in a fight.

Bathsheda gave the younger girl a long considering look before nodding minutely, "Very well, there's certainly no arguing that the bracelet will vastly strengthen the connection between the pendants. Still, there are a great many implications that come with giving someone a piece of jewelry made of your hair, let alone one made of two peoples intertwined. That's not even mentioning what the enchantments you've carved into it are saying, if anyone with half a mind for runes reads what that script is saying..."

Hermione smiled tremulously, "I know. In my defence I wasn't really planning on telling anyone about this until you asked me to make the necklaces. Once I'd started though I just knew I couldn't leave out the bracelet, it would have been...wrong' Hermione admitted

"Ah, to be young and dramatic again" The older woman laughed and shook her head, "Regardless of how this test goes you have my word no one will hear of this from me... you may keep those pieces as well. A truly remarkable set like that should stay with its creator, especially when it's such a personal creati-"

"Ding!" The wall released a happy chirp and dropped suddenly, revealing Luna giving the disappearing blocker a look of doe eyed confusion.

Hermione panicked briefly and tried to sweep the three pieces into her lap, only to find them already gone. She looked up at her teacher and got a surreptitious wink back along with a tap on her foot where she could see the three neatly piled into the top of her open schoolbag.

"Well!" Professor Babbling clapped her hands and grabbed Luna's exam papers up to take back to her desk. "I'm fully aware of Miss Grangers marks as I've had plenty of time to look them over and her practical was so remarkable I've decided she may keep it as long as she demonstrates its effects for me later. Miss Lovegood I'll have your marks back to you by breakfast tomorrow, both of you keep an eye out as I'll be informing you of what your efforts have wrought by owl"

The Professor swept both girls up, barely giving them time to collect their things and bustled them out the door, pausing only briefly to hand them both their book bags that she'd swept up with them.

"Thank you professor!" Hermione said sincerely, Luna following suit without prompting.

"No need for thanks girls" Babbling waved them off, "Your work will speak for itself, now enjoy the rest of your weekend. Classes start Monday and I expect I'll be seeing a lot of you both"

The door snapped shut on them and finally the stress of the last few hours of constant studying and carving hit them both like a troll and they almost slumped over.

"Lunch?" Luna asked wearily.

"And then a nap I think" Hermione agreed with an exhausted grin, throwing an arm around the smaller girls shoulder and leading her towards the great hall. "On the way you can tell me all about these Nargles that took your clothes"

\----------

Harry expected several things when he arrived for his first (and potentially last) meeting as Flitwicks apprentice, a run through of every spell he'd researched over the summer. Perhaps another test of his ability to dodge spellfire while having a conversation, even simply sitting down and explaining what he believed his future held were all on the table. A discussion about whether or not he had started noticing girls was about as far from on the table as he could imagine, he'd just taken a sip of the fruit juice Flitwick had provided when the man opened their discussion about whether he'd be taken on or not with;

"So should I be worried for young Miss Lovegood's virtue?" The part goblin man said cheerfully.

"Hrrk!" Harry choked on his drink, half spitting it onto the desk in front of him.

"Well there's no need for dramatics" Flitwick said drily, vanishing the liquid with a flick of his wrist. "I only ask because she is a Ravenclaw, I have to look out for my students and that was a rather long hug I saw last night after dinner."

"I-I was just saying goodnight!" Harry gasped out, taking a deep breaths and coughing sharply to clear his throat. "I wasn't- I mean not that she isn't-"

Harry thankfully caught a glance at the overwhelmingly amused look on his Professors face before he could dig that hole any deeper.

"You did that on purpose" Harry accused,

"A little" Flitwick admitted holding two fingers a tiny bit apart. "I'm afraid today is going to start on a very personal conversation and I wanted to start off on a happy note" He admitted with a hint of melancholy.

"Ah, shall we get started then?" Harry asked unsurely, "I did all the extra reading you asked over the summer and I kept up with my physical training, If anything I increased that a bit"

"I assumed you would, that's why I intentionally reduced the physical requirements by about 20%" Flitwick admitted, ignoring Harry's half impressed, half outraged look. "I have no doubt that any physical or magical achievements I ask of you will be met with extreme enthusiasm. Which is why sometimes I will ask less than I believe you can do, with the knowledge that you will push yourself regardless, at other times I'll will ask more than I believe you can give while knowing that you will push past your limits to reach them."

"You're going to manipulate me so I get the most out of your training?" Harry asked dubiously.

"Yes" Flitwick admitted without a trace of shame. "Like I told you before the summer, I won't have part in turning you into some magical hitman whose ability to fight and kill are his only virtues. I set your physical goals lower knowing that when you smashed past them you would feel accomplished enough that you would feel obligated to turn to my other instructions. Based on the quality of the essay you wrote me on Aristotle's 12 virtues and vices I'd say that was successful wouldn't you?"

Harry couldn't seem to decide whether he wanted to thank the man or try and strangle him with his beard, Filius simply smiled enigmatically and continued on.

"Do you know why I asked you to write me an essay on a Muggle Philosophers theory on ethics and morality?" Flitwick asked.

"When I was writing it, I thought it was just to show me how too much of anything could be bad" Harry gave him a self deprecating smile, "I'd say I have a touch too much recklessness and too little good humour in general" He admitted. "But since I sent you that essay I haven't been able to stop thinking about it...I've actually asked a few people their opinions on it"

There was a comfortable silence while Harry collected his thoughts, the room lit up with the early morning light filtering through the quasi opaque window behind Flitwick's back.

"I asked my friends about it" Harry started slowly, clearly half in a memory. "They all had advice about it, Ron said I was overthinking it, Hermione tried to create a graph I could update daily to track where on the scale I was between too much and not enough. The really insightful one was Luna though..." Harry trailed off for a moment, a fond look on his face. "She said being being reckless wasn't something that I am it's something that I do, and it's up to me to choose whether I'm going to be like that or not. It made me think a lot about how many things in my life I let happen or react to just because I feel like I should, or because that's just the way things are."

Harry looked up from the table and met Professor Flitwicks eyes, "I think I really started to understand what you meant about not training just to fight once that sunk in. When you said that at first I was angry" Harry admitted, "I thought you were going to be wasting my time with frilly crap and it would get me or someone I cared about killed" He shook his head softly, "I guess I hadn't ever really thought about who I was as a person, or who I wanted to be outside of 'Alive'"

"And now?" Flitwick asked softly.

"Now...now I want to do more, to be more than the guy that beats Voldemort and goes to join the Aurors or something" Harry looked past the elderly professor and over the Hogwarts grounds. "Wizards and Witches can live for hundreds of years, which is what made it easy for me to decide what I want to do when Tom and his pet terrorists are finally dealt with." Harry's eyes lit up with excitement and he lent forward in his chair. "I want to take the tent I bought over the summer grab my friends and then I want to get lost, I want to go to the far corners of the earth and just see what's there! I want to eat different food and learn different languages, I want to learn magic from other cultures, I want to find Crumple Horned Snorkacks with Luna, I want to visit the library of Alexandria with Hermione, I want to watch Quidditch with Ron between teams whose names we can't pronounce!"

Harry paused and took a deep breath before subsiding with a half manic grin and leaning back in his chair, not seeming to notice that his hair was windswept and the entire room felt as if it was filled with static electricity. "I've spent my entire life locked up one way or another, from the cupboard, to the crushing expectations of most of the magical world" He gestured around vaguely, "Even this castle, as much as I love it has felt like a cage for me at times. So I'm going to train until I drop, then I'm going to get up and keep going, not just because I am going to survive to see that dream come true, but also because I like it and I'm good at it!

Flitwick's smile had grown to match Harry's as he'd talked, the craving for freedom and feeling freedom through combat resonating with the older man who'd gone through similar craving for independence and respect as a teenager, although admittedly not with the same sword of Damocles over his head.

"Good answer" Professor Flitwick admitted, "That makes this all much easier then, I accept your position as my apprentice"

Harry blinked once slowly, "...That's all it takes?"

Professor Flitwick gave hima dry look, "Only taking a long hard honest look at yourself and starting the slow arduous path of self realisation as a 14 year old? Trust me Harry, I'd have taken you on with a lot less self reflection than you've achieved this summer." Flitwicks smile turned almost sinister. "You've thoroughly exceeded my expectations young man, which means we're going to have to step up your training a notch."

The room suddenly flickered like a poorly maintained film and all the magical doohickeys vanished from the room along with all the books and breakable objects. Harry barely had a chance to to glance around at the suddenly empty room before Flitwicks wand appeared in his face glowing ominously. Harry threw himself backwards, rolling as the chair hit the ground and moving in a zigzag pattern towards the door with a wide grin on his face. Around him splashes of smoky white light flew by his shoulders half a second behind his jerky movements and while he knew his teacher was taking it easy on him it was still exhilarating. Once enough space had been made he spun on a dime and was forced to duck instantly to avoid a paint spell to the face that splattered over the door behind him. At the far end of the long room Flitwick was on top of his desk with a vicious grin.

"A little birdy told me you cast a shield that shattered two dozen stunners" The Professor called excitedly. "That's an impressive feat!"

Harry juked to the left to avoid a casually thrown stinger, "I thought a bunch of Death Eaters had found us and were about to murder my friends!" Harry called back, "I was pretty bloody motivated!" A trio of spells boxed him in suddenly and he was forced to dive to the ground, rolling and coming back to his feet in one smooth movement.

"The trick is in repetition!" Flitwick explained while keeping up a steady stream of stinger and paintballs with the occasional humiliating colour changing charm mixed in. "You have to focus on drawing back that feeling again without the catalyst involved and casting the same spell over and over again! How do you think I can cast these spells while maintaining a conversation? I've cast them all so many times it's just channelling memory at this point, no feeling , no wand movement and no words needed, just a bit of general intent and the rest is automatic!"

"Wait a sec!" Harry called out, pausing and taking a colour changer that turned his shirt bright yellow for his trouble. "Are you telling me if I can summon up that feeling again and just keep casting shields, eventually my protego will just come out that strong by default!?"

Professor Flitwick laughed and kept up his barrage, forcing the now heavily breathing teen to start moving again. "There's a bit more to it than that, but essentially yes. There's a common misconception that we contain some sort of magical pool of energy, an amount of power that we can use before becoming exhausted. It's an understandable idea, after enough casting people do start to feel fatigued and most get an empty almost sucking sensation in their torso which some people have attributed to 'running out of magic'"

"You mean we don't have magic in us?" Harry asked raggedly.

"Of course we do!" Flitwick laughed, slowing his spells a little to let the boy focus on what he was saying. "It isn't some kind of reservoir though! We simply are magic, it saturates us inside and out flowing through our veins alongside our blood. Magic is the underlying energy of the universe Harry! It's a field of energy that hums beneath and between the building blocks of existence! That empty feeling people get is due to channelling more magic than they're used to, it isn't even harmful the average person just can't push through it!"

There was a pause while Filius let Harry catch his breath and focus on his next words. "We channel magic Harry, our emotions, intent and visualisation all shape the result of the spell we cast. The wand movements and incantation are like shortcuts, they provide structure to the magic around us when a persons willpower, emotional state or imagination can't make up the difference which is why until 6th year you only learn magic by rote, or at least most students do. That's why casting properly every time you do so is so important, imagine you cast 100 stunners a day for a month with the intention of one day being able to throw them around without word or wand moment. You finally achieve your goal and you're 'attuned' enough to the spell to toss them out like confetti, except you've been half assing them the whole time and in order to actually get some power into it you still have to say the words and make the movement."

Harry took slow gulping breaths to get it back under control but nodded along as his instructor talked, if he was completely honest what Flitwick was saying made a lot of sense but he'd just never thought of it that way.

"So that's what we're going to do!" Flitwick smile was all teeth. "I won't settle for less than exceptional after your showing so far Mr. Potter! When we're done you'll be able to summon such a powerful shield without a word on a moments notice!"

Harry's jaw dropped and he flicked his wrist desperately, trying to get it up in time as the wand facing him grew brighter and brighter.

"Remember the feeling Harry!" Flitwick roared, and for a brief second Harry wondered hysterically if anyone could hear what was happening in this large office. "Your friends are behind you! My spell will reduce them to ashes!"

Harry's eyes widened and he desperately threw his mind back to the moment he'd thought they were all going to die, dozens of red lights all converging on them with lethal intent. He closed his eyes and squeezed them shut, unable to focus with the face of a man he trusted in front of him and pictured Hermione on the the ground at his feet, desperately covering Luna with her own body and looking up at him with a pleading expression.

"PERCUTIENS!" Flitwick shouted.

In his mind's eye Harry saw the moment the spells left the wands all around him, a river of violent red light aiming at both himself and his downed friends. His eyes snapped open and he jabbed his wand towards his teacher with a defiant roar.

"FALSUM!" Flitwick completed, a roaring ball of white light rocketing towards his student.

"PROTEGO!" Harry's reply lit up the room and a semi circle of rippling translucent light appeared between the two wizards.

It took less for a second for the spinning ball of white light that Flitwick cast to strike the shield, where it dissipated like water on a a hot road leaving barely a shimmer. The shock of the lack of impact and the smiling face of his mentor broke Harry's grip on his emotions and the shield broke down without a sound.

"False strike spell" Flitwick explained to Harry's bewildered look. "Gives off the appearance of a powerful spell but it's all noise and light"

"R-right" Harry gasped, the adrenaline of the moment slowly leaving him.

"Excellent first try on bringing up those feelings and casting effectively" Flitwick nodded happily, "now we just need to keep that up until it's second nature!"

Harry froze for a moment half leaning against a bookshelf and gave the teacher a n incredulous look.

"This spell won't be a fake" Professor Flitwick promised, pointing his wand at the young man. "Again!"

2 hours later

"Alright that's time!" Flitwicks cheery voice rang out. "Go get some lunch and then come back after you've eaten and showered. We'll be going over some simple theory work when you get back so make sure to stretch."

Across the room Harry collapsed to his knees and let the shield he'd been holding for the last 5 minutes drop with a deep sigh of relief. They'd been slowly working on casting the shield charm with the same level of power with steadily less and less emotional intent as the morning wore on. Truthfully Harry didn't feel as if he'd really made any progress on that front, but his teacher seemed pleased so he wasn't going to raise a fuss.

The sweat drenched young man stumbled to the door and waved half halfheartedly over his shoulder, not able to summon the energy to offer a proper goodbye. As soon as the door clicked closed Professor Flitwick let a satisfied smile cross his lips.

"You were right old friend" A deep voice sounded from behind one of his many bookcases, the light timber shimmering as the Headmaster walked out from behind it.

Dressed as garishly as ever in a lavender purple robe covered in sparkling silver lights, looking for all the world like a dusk skyline Albus Dumbledore still managed to have a presence that beggared belief,

"I hate to say I told you so" Filius started smugly, "But I told you he would take to the philosophy if he was given the chance"

"I know when to admit I'm wrong" Albus smiled behind his impressive whiskers and took a seat in front of his charms teachers desk. "And I must say I'm rarely so happy to be proven so. It seems all he was lacking really was simply a bit of direct attention."

Flitwick snorted, "It isn't a surprise considering how he was raised, I doubt he's ever experienced positive direct attention from an adult before now" he continued bitterly, "If I didn't trust you as well as I do I'd consider his placement there a grave mistake Albus"

A sorrowful look crossed the older mans visage but was pushed aside, "Sometimes I fear it was as well" Dumbledore said gravely, "But then I recall the 17 different attempts by 'Interested Party's" to locate him that all lead back to Death Eaters or their sympathisers. Had he been in a position to be found, or under anything less than a direct and close blood relations care I have no doubt that Harry Potter would not have survived to see Hogwarts"

"Are you sure you don't want to take a more direct influence?" Flitwick asked casually, letting the old argument pass without comment.

"Absolutely" Dumbledore smiled tiredly, "Even if I had the time to take him on directly I would not do so yet. You will teach him more about being a good man along with being a good wizard than I could. In the meantime I will simply be content to offer what I can from behind the scenes, if all goes well he won't need the sort of training that I could provide"

"And if, when I've taught him all I know if he still wants to learn more?"

Albus gave him a delighted smile, "Then it will be my absolutely pleasure to take him under my wing"

"The sole apprentice to Albus Dumbledore, it would be a lot of weight on his shoulders, even more than the Boy-Who-Lived nonsense" Flitwick mused.

"I have never met a young man I would trust to bear the weight more"

\----------

AN: And that's the first day back at Hogwarts down! Ron's in with a okayish written score but a quality handling of a stressful situation, Hermione's starting to have some thoughts about where exactly her crush on 2 of her friends might lead and Harry gets a lesson on how magic works in this universe. In case it wasn't obvious while I do like a good magical power level story as much as the next reader, I'm subscribing more to the "Magic can be cast as much as you want until your arm and voice gets tired" with the added caveat that you start to attune your personal 'Field' for lack of a better word to any magic you use consistently. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, it's my favourite so far and it set the scene for a lot of the later themes I'm planning for the story so if you like this one that's a good indicator for how the rest of this is gonna go.

If you haven't seen I've updated the summary to be a little more punchy, better? worse? Let me know!


	5. Sustaining the Burn

The first official day of classes started on a lonely note for Luna, she had gotten to the great hall early hoping that one of her friends would have arrived before her but had been disappointed to find it mostly empty. She'd realized late last night that classes starting again meant that most of her day would be spent in almost total isolation, surrounded by people that, at best, found her odd and unapproachable. It wasn't that they were all cruel or that they were even necessarily bullying her, it was simply the seclusion that she couldn't stand. She doubted most of them even realised just how hurtful it was to have a teacher force someone to reluctantly work with her when they had to pair up in class, or the way so many of them glanced at her like she crazy and might spread it to them if they spent time with her.

'Although' Luna thought hopefully, a small smile lighting up her face. 'If I did well enough on the runes test I'll have at least one class with a friend'

She glanced at the flower shaped watch on her wrist, the petals opening up at her unspoken request and revealing that it was a good 20 minutes before the hall would start to really fill up. She was fairly sure that Hermione would turn up first, head buried in the small journal she'd taken to writing in every spare moment she had with a rather frustrating lack of transparency. Luna liked a good mystery as much as the next reporter/explorer but she somehow doubted Hermione would appreciate her planning and executing an expedition into reading the book she refused to show anyone the contents of. Ron would follow after and Arianrhod curse her if seeing the lanky ginger boy she'd known growing up with his head buried in a book about magical diseases every morning didn't make her do a double take in shock.

'Not that it isn't good!' She reminded herself, always careful to not appear negative about his surprising studiousness. She knew better than most how easily embarrassed Ronald Weasley could be and didn't want to discourage him in any way.

Lastly Harry would rush in with 10 minutes to the end of breakfast to go with his robe half on and his hair still damp from his morning shower. She didn't quite understand why her messy haired friend got up to run around and lift heavy things every morning before the sun had even completely broken the horizon. She wasn't ashamed to admit that she found the results satisfactory though, the image of the young man in question drenched in sweat and arriving at her home over the summer looking so happy to see her had been...interesting. Unbidden a small red tinge lit up her cheeks and she quickly stuffed a hashbrown into her mouth while she tried to chase the thought away, unfortunately it just brought another even more pleasant memory to the forefront. As awful as the events of the Quidditch world cup were she'd actually come away from the whole event with more positive than negative experiences. In particular the moment Hermione had inadvertently dragged her into the middle of her greeting Harry had occupied her thought's more than once since.

"Hey check it out, Looney's blushing" an obnoxious voice cut in from down the table, "Reckon she's discovered boy's, or do you think she'd prefer one of her creatures?" It continued crudely.

A small titter of laughter flowed around the young Ravenclaw but with ease of long practise she continued her train of thought without acknowledging the older girl trying to get a rise out of her. The feeling of being crushed between her best friend and, if she was being 100% honest with herself, the boy she might have had a tiny unspoken crush on was pleasant in a way she'd never felt before. The warm tingle she'd gotten from being pressed up against Harry's chest had been extremely pleasant but at least somewhat expected, what had given her a bit of a shock though was the equally pleasant tingle she'd gotten feeling Hermione molded against her back. She wasn't one to dwell on such things but she couldn't help what she dreamt about and the moment had been showing up rather frequently . More often then not in the last few weeks her dreams started off about trekking through the rugged jungles or deserts of some far off land with her friends and ended with a very familiar 3-way hug of celebration.

"Hey Looney!" The same voice called from a few places down smugly "Where's your cloak, it's awfully cold this morning!"

A wider spread of laughter followed that, unfortunately revealing that more of her house-mates were at least aware of her things going missing than she'd hoped.

"It is a little chilly" Luna replied with a dreamy smile, "I'm afraid my warm clothes haven't reappeared as I'd hoped they would, Nargles are such troublesome creatures"

"Yeah Nargles" replied the girl who, now that Luna was paying attention, she recognised as Marietta Edgecombe.

Luna wasn't entirely sure why the older girl had such an issue with her or the the Quibbler but she'd been loudly and vocally insulting her fathers paper ever since Luna had arrived in Ravenclaw.

"Well don't worry" Marietta said mockingly, "I'm sure they'll turn up, sooner or...later" She trailed off, her vicious tone trailing off into confusion.

Luna started in surprise when a warm weight suddenly landed on her shoulders, she tilted her head back to see who was standing over her expecting Hermione based on the time. She was pleasantly surprised to find Harry at her back with his much larger Gryffindor robe now hanging over her shoulders like a cloak, a warm smile directed down at her.

"Morning Luna" He greeted happily. "Have you gotten Professor Babblings' letter yet?"

"Not yet" She shook her head, her smile widening when he dropped onto the seat next to her and pulled a plate over. "But it should be soon, I'll need it before I get my course schedule after all"

Around them a widening circle of confusion was spreading around the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables, with how busy they'd all been over the first weekend the four friends hadn't really had time to simply sit together. The result of that was that aside from a the very few people that had seen them meeting up in the library almost no one remembered that they'd started to sit together before the summer holidays. Slowly as the odd pair struck up a conversation the students around them started to go back to what they were doing, with the notable exception that now the small group that had been attempting to heckle the girl were completely silent.

"Are you nervous?" Harry asked, "about your results I mean?"

"Worry is wasteful" Luna said lightly, drawing a chuckle out of Harry.

"Maybe" He admitted, rolling his sleeves back to keep them clean while he ate, inadvertently drawing a bit of attention to the bottom portion of the massive scar that covered the inside of his left arm just above the elbow. "But that's certainly never stopped me before, you should have seen me before my first Quidditch game"

Luna giggled, "It's odd to imagine you being nervous about flying, you've always seemed more at ease up there than down here"

"I do love to fly, honestly it was more about the attention than anything. Once I was up there though I could just ignore the crowds" He smiled wistfully, "Honestly I wish I could ignore what people thought like you do"

"Like me?" She questioned innocently, though he knew her well enough to catch the teasing tinge behind that "I don't draw any att-"

"How did you get that?" A boy's voice cut her off sounding aghast.

Harry turned his head slowly to meet the gaze of the older boy that was gaping openly at Harry's arm. "It's rude to interrupt" He said simply, one eyebrow raised in displeasure before turning back to Luna.

"You were saying?" He prompted Luna gently getting a brilliant smile in return.

"Doesn't matter" She said brightly, "Where are Ron and Hermione by the way?"

"Oh Hermione said she was going to visit the kitchens again this morning" Harry said sympathetically, Hermione's drive to help the House Elves was admirable but also a little disheartening with how little progress she was making in even talking to them. "Ron is just sleep-"

"Come off it" A different voice scoffed, "That thing is huge! How'd you get a scar like that that Madam Pomfrey couldn't heal it?"

Harry's eyebrow twitched in annoyance and he turned to the now actually quite large group of Ravenclaws that were staring and talking amongst each other. Luna stifled a laugh behind him and patted the taller boy on the hand in sympathy, letting him deal with them all while she turned back to her food in a much better mood.

"First of all" Harry said evenly, raising a single finger. "Don't interrupt me when I'm talking to my friends" He steadfastly ignore the happy wiggle he felt next to him when he said that. "Secondly, none of your business how I get my scars, everyone got the story on this one" He gestured to his forehead, "The rest are no-ones business who I choose to tell"

"There are more!?" A younger girl said in horror.

Harry merely rolled his eyes and turned away but before he could even open his mouth a barrage of questions erupted around him like a flock of noisy pigeons.

"They won't stop till you tell them" Luna said in a sing song voice, "Ravenclaws hate a puzzle they can't solve"

"They won't believe me if I tell them" Harry countered with a smile.

Luna gave him a confused look, "It can't be that unusual a scar compared to the one everyone knows about" she said half questioningly.

"Did you want to know?" He asked curiously.

"Only if you feel comfortable telling me" Luna smiled dreamily up at him, Harry simply shrugged and acquiesced.

"I pulled the sword of Gryffindor out of the sorting hat and used it to stab a Basilisk the size of a 6 Hogwarts Express train cars stuck together in the brain" Harry said blandly. Ignoring the fact that almost the entire great hall had gone completely silent at his declaration, the only sound was of people whispering what he'd said to their fellows that hadn't heard.

Luna nodded once slowly, chewing and swallowing a piece of broccoli. "How did stabbing a Basilisk give you a scar on your arm?" She asked curiously, no trace of disbelief in her at all.

"I baited it into lunging at me to try and eat me in one bite and used its own momentum to shove the sword through the roof of it's mouth. One of its fangs got me on the way down" Harry admitted, a little baffled that she didn't look remotely disbelieving.

"How did you stop the venom? and how did you avoid looking it in the eye?" She asked, as if getting clarification on a Quidditch manoeuvre.

"Oh that was Fawkes, Dumbledore's Phoenix, it clawed it's eyes out for me and it cried on the wound, phoenix tears have a potent healing effect. It neutralised the venom and closed the wound, but it couldn't stop it from scarring over." Harry explained, deciding to expand without prompting. "That's how I got the sorting hat too, Fawkes brought it to me down in the Chamber of Secrets after I got my wand taken. Fawkes saved my life like 3 times down there, between blinding it, distracting it and then healing the wound that fang left in me I owe that bird a lot" Harry grimaced, "I'll tell you though Basilisk venom is a bad way to go, it felt like someone had replaced my blood with acid"

"Bullshit" A voice cut the two's conversation off and Harry was surprised to see the Captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team had spoken. "Basilisk's don't petrify people, it can't have been one doing it" He made an unimpressed face, "OH! and obviously you fighting a Basilisk with a sword is ridiculous, but I thought that pretty much went without saying"

"Yeah unless someone meets it's gaze indirectly" Harry corrected, visibly annoyed by the fact that the entire hall seemed to be listening in on his conversation. "Like say in a reflection, or through a camera or something transparent like a ghost. We got insanely lucky that year that no one died" Harry made a mocking copy of his unimpressed look, "OH! And I don't care what you believe, I wasn't talking to you anyway"

Rodger scoffed and went to speak up again but was cut off by a voice none expected.

"I must admit Harry, I never expected to hear that story told from your own mouth" Albus Dumbledore said pleasantly, having left the head table to come down to see what had enthralled the entire hall. Behind him the teachers were making an effort to appear that they also weren't listening in as carefully as possible, except Professor Snape who looked like he had just tasted something foul "You always seemed rather keen to keep it to yourself?"

Harry smiled wanly, "I've been trying to be less...broody" He admitted, "Turns out being overly modest and secretive is just as bad as bragging and preening when you get right down to it"

The headmaster nodded knowingly, "Ah yes, 'An excess of modesty in an arrogance all it's own'" He gave the young man a pleased look, "A valuable lesson to be learned early"

"Headmaster!" Rodger said in shock, "Are you saying that's all true!?"

"To the best of knowledge" Dumbledore confirmed, "I can certainly say a rather filthy young Mr. Potter turned up in my office at the end of his second year dragging Gryffindor's sword covered in blood I confirmed to be a Basilisks." He glanced at Harry questioningly and got a passive shrug and nod of agreement. "The healer who assessed him afterwards confirmed the presence of a remarkably virulent venom being neutralised by phoenix tears and of course when I investigated the chamber I found ample evidence to suggest it was true."

"I didn't realise you'd gone down there Headmaster?" Harry asked questioningly.

Dumbledore turned twinkling eyes on him and smiled widely, "I had to be sure there were no other unpleasant surprises down there, plus there was always a small chance some small scrap of Slytherin's history might be left down there. The rendering down of the creature was a rather profitable venture as well, it's venom alone fetched more than a pretty sickle, your portion was deposited into your vaults last year...which now that I mention it I do believe I completely forgot to tell you, my apologies" He smiled apologetically, "Now I do hate to interrupt this, but if all students could return to their respective tables so our heads can had out the course schedules?"

Slowly the students drifted back to their tables talking amongst themselves and shooting Harry measuring or awed look as they went, clearly most wanted to question him further but were unwilling to gainsay the Headmaster. Harry meanwhile threw an arm around Luna and gave her a half hug and stood to head back to the Gryffindor table where he could see Ron had stumbled down and was watching the whole event with a bemused look on his face.

"Don't forget your cloak Harry" Luna said happily, starting to shrug it off but was interrupted by Harry's hand on her shoulder.

"Hold onto it" Harry smiled, "It's gonna be cold today and I heard there was some problem with your winter clothes" He twisted his wrist and tapped the ejected wand twice on the collar and mumbled an incantation to resize it to fit her better and turn the trim blue. "It still has the Gryffindor symbol and my name on it" Harry admittedly regretfully. "But-"

"It's perfect" Luna interrupted with complicated look, pulling the better fitting cloak over her arms properly.

Harry started to say goodbye but froze paused a moment when he realised he was actually rather enjoying seeing Luna pull a piece of his clothing on, thankfully his staring was interrupted by Hermione arriving at his elbow with her ever present black journal in hand and a confused look on her face,

She looked around the Hall where most people were blatantly staring at Harry and gave him a considering look, "What did I miss?"

Harry and Luna shared a look and broke out into quiet laughter while Harry grabbed Hermione gently by the wrist and tugged her towards the Gryffindor table. Hermione shot her Ravenclaw friend a questioning look over her shoulder as she was led away but could only see the back of her head as she'd gone back to eating. The duo arrived across from Ron's half slumped form and had barely sat before Hermione was back to questioning him again.

"Why was the Headmaster down there?" She asked curiously, "Did something happen, is everything okay?"

Ron chuckled tiredly across from them gnawing on a piece of bacon half-heartedly and flipped the page on the Quidditch book he'd dragged down to the table with him. "Nah Harry just told everyone what happened in the chamber is all. Dumbledore had to come down and keep the peace"

"What!?" Hermione exclaimed, "What do you mean, why would you tell everyone about that, you hate talking about stuff like that!"

Harry laughed and rested his hand atop hers to try and calm her. "I do hate talking about things like the chamber" He admitted, "but I've been talking to Professor Flitwick about it and he encouraged me to start telling people I trust about the things that I've done here over the years."

Hermione raised one eyebrow, "And you decided to start by telling the entire great hall?"

"No, I decided if someone who I liked or respected asked me about something as long as it wasn't too personal I'd tell them, and Luna asked" Harry explained "Not my fault this place is full of eavesdroppers"

The trio glanced around and chuckled when they saw most of the table look away like they hadn't just been listening in again. Harry opened his mouth to ask about the exhausted look on Ron's face but was interrupted by the arrival of the owl post swooping through through the hall in a cavalcade of noise. Hermione's interrogation stopped in a dime and she stared up at them nervously, remembering just what news she would be getting this morning. A tiny screech owl swooped down alongside Hedwig and landed in front of her with a small scroll on it's leg. While Harry quickly detached the letter he'd been expecting from Sirius Hermione reached out with shaking hands and untied to ribbon.

Dear Hermione Granger,

It is my great pleasure as a Master of the Runic Arts to offer you the position of Apprentice and Research Assistant until such time as you are considered skilled enough to pass your Journeymanship. This process will take no less than 1(one) year and no more than 3(three) years to complete, if you should be declared unfit for Journeymanship after 3(three) years of consecutive time as an Apprentice your position will be revoked and you will have to reapply again with another Master. The position of Apprentice comes with many rights and responsibilities outlined in the fineprint listed at the bottom of the page. Should this all be considered satisfactory please sign next to the X below and press the tip of your wand next to your signature.

X

Signed, Professor Bathsheda Babbling, Master of the Runic Arts.

Beneath this was a miniscule series of black lines that Hermione realised were actually the fine print compressed so far it would be impossible to read even with a magnifying glass. Regardless a wave of relief washed through the girl as she realised that she had done it, when Ron and Harry had both confirmed their positions on the first night back she'd been more than a little scared that she'd be the odd one out.

A sob of relief left her lips before she could catch it, drawing Harry's attention away from his own letter sharply.

"Are you okay?" He asked, staring hard at the letter in her hand, "Was there some sort of problem, did-"

He was cut off by the fact that his arms were suddenly full of joyously laughing brunette and he felt like his mouth had suddenly gone drier than a mouthful of sand.

"I got accepted!" She cried, her arms firmly around Harry's neck and fell half in his lap.

Ron watched from across the table with genuine pleasure as Hermione babbled happily about her plans now that she was officially allowed to research Runes on school time while sprawled half across his best mates lap. If he was completely honest with himself the idea what Hermione wouldn't get accepted hadn't even occurred to him so he wasn't quite sure what the fuss was, it was Hermione of course she was going to get it. Apparently that feeling hadn't been shared by his nerdy best friend because she seemed about as relieved as if she'd been 100 percent convinced she had failed and had just been told she actually passed with flying colours.

He shook his head in confusion but offered up a sincere "Knew you could do it" with a thumbs up through a mouthful of fried egg.

Hermione gave him a brilliant smile nod of thanks before seeming to realise something and leaping out of her new seat, Ron smirking at the disappointed look Harry failed to hide in time.

"I forgot!" She exclaimed, "If I got in that means Luna passed the test to skip ahead and we have Runes together first" She hesitated, then threw her arms around Harry from behind and squeezed him once before turning and leaving with a bright red face.

There was a long moment of silence at the small stretch of table the male part of the trio occupied and Harry did his best to not look up while his face was still hot and red, knowing exactly the look he'd see on Ron's face. Instead he stared stonily at the letter Sirius had sent him, trying to force his cheeks to cool down by force of will.

Harry-

I'm glad to hear that Flitwick accepted you as an Apprentice, although I say he'd be crazy to say no but maybe that's just a Godfather's bias speaking. Did you know that your mother was considering taking an apprenticeship with him as well? She was always an absolute genius with charms, figured out how reverse engineer a half a dozen of them before her 5th year and was on the fast track to start her Charms mastery after she graduated. If you get a chance ask him about the time she modified the colour changing charm so that it made everything monochrome, we spent that entire month doing it to each other and pretending we were stuck in those silent black and white muggle films.

I should tell you I've been hearing some strange rumours coming out of Britain lately and I'm considering coming back so I'll be nearby if you need it. Apparently Dumbledore even pulled Mad-Eye out of retirement, which means he's seeing something happening even if no one else is. Make sure you let me know if you notice anything unusual going on, I want to be there if something starts to happen. I'll be in touch soon, give my best to your friends and keep your eyes peeled, something's not right.

Regards

Snuffles

Harry growled lowly and crumpled the letter into a ball, turning it into a small pile of ashes with a whispered word and flick of his wand, then vanished the evidence just as quickly. Forgetting for a moment why he'd been focused on the letter to begin with he stood and turned to head up to the owlery.

"I'm guessing that wasn't girl advice?" Ron said drily.

"No" Harry said with an eye roll, "The jackass is trying to find an excuse to come back already, I need to go figure out how to convince him not to"

"Alright" Ron agreed cheerfully, "Try not to lose any more clothes on the way!" He called as Harry started walking away again, snickering when his mate sped up and pretended not to hear him.

3 Days Later

The first Defence class of the year was something of a mystery throughout the school and Harry was glad they'd finally be getting a chance to see for themselves what it was all about. Between the secrecy surrounding the Triwizard tournament and the way everyone talked around this one class Harry was seriously starting to wonder what sort of weird pleasure people got from hinting at things but not explaining them. Not that his own attempt at transparency hadn't had some odd effects, some good like the fact that the Slytherins were giving him an extremely wide berth. Some bad like the way he couldn't seem to get through one walk between classes without someone asking him to clarify something that was none of their business.

'Next time I'm going somewhere private to tell people stuff' Harry castigated himself silently.

Although the lack of harassment was already half happening with Draco's mysterious lack of attempts to antagonize him since school had started. Honestly it was almost creepy how the platinum blond seemed to be constantly giving them filthy looks but never actually said anything, it would have been worrisome if Harry had had a single iota of energy spare to think about it.

"Reckon he'll be teaching us some sort of Auror battle magic or something?" Dean asked as the 4th year Gryffindors left headed towards the defence classroom together.

"Maybe he'll tell us about the war!" Seamus said enthusiastically.

"He better not!" Parvati cried, "I don't want to hear about that stuff, it was awful!"

"I dunno, it could be cool to hear about what it was like being a dark wizard hunter when there were so many around" Lavender argued.

"I've heard of Mad-Eye from my Dad" Ron said, "It might just be a trick to try and get us thinking about it, Dad says he plays mind games like that to keep people on their toes"

There was clearly some objection to that idea but it didn't matter, they'd arrived at the entrance to the Defence classroom and the teacher was already standing at the front of the room glaring as they entered. Silently everyone filed in and took their seats, naturally splitting Slytherin and Gryffindor across the centreline and all sitting awkwardly fidgeting until Mad-Eye started to speak.

"Books away" he growled, "you won't be needing them this lesson"

"Told you!" Dean whispered as the room stuffed their textbooks back into bags and a slightly livilier feeling spread through the room, practical lessons were always fun.

"I've been in contact with Professor Lupin about how last year went" He said once all the books were safely away. "I was hoping to get a longer history but it turns out the two before him are dead and as good as, so it'll have to do."

"Professor Lockhart died!?" Fay Dunbar burst out in shock and Harry vaguely recalled her being one of his more vocal proponents.

Professor Moody gave her a gimlet eye, which looked particularly horrifying on his twisted and scarred face before he suddenly smiled. It was perhaps the most horrifying smile the class had ever see but was nonetheless welcome, after all if he could do something as friendly as smile he couldn't be all bad.

"Not quite" Moody tempered, "he tried to off a student who managed to get the better of him, same happened to Quirrel as well except he didn't get off with just a reflected Obliviate that wiped his memory right back to nappies" The crooked smile stretched further and he met Harry's eyes knowingly. "Seeing as I plan on going back to my quiet retirement after this and not to St Mungo's I'll be avoiding following in their footsteps"

"You aren't going to try and murder us, whoop de do" An aristocratic drawl spoke up from the back of the Slytherin section.

The wildly spinning eye in Mad-Eye's head froze and spun to lock onto the suddenly nervous Draco Malfoy.

"Lupin says you got a good starter course on magical creatures and I'm inclined to believe him" He stomped forward never taking his eyes off Draco. "What you're woefully behind on though is Curses" he laughed harshly "Ministry says I'm only supposed to show you lot the countercurses" He scoffed, "Luckily Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves"

Finally he stopped his steady stare at Malfoy and the young man let out an audible sigh of relief, slumping slightly in his chair.

"How are you supposed to defend yourselves from something you've never seen!" He snapped, "A dark wizard isn't going to explain what he's about to throw at you and you need to know what to expect!"

Moody stomped back around his desk reaching below and pulling up three large jars each with a massive tarantula in them, Ron caught one look at their glittering eyes and froze up. Unfortunately Moody wasn't in any mood to let them off easy so he pointed at the ginger boy first.

"There are 3 spells that grant the caster an instant life sentence in Azkaban if cast on a human, name one" He ordered harshly.

Ron gulped loudly, tearing his eyes off the spider reluctantly, "Uh...Dad mentioned one he had trouble with in the war, the Imperius Curse I think?"

Moody nodded approvingly, "He would have come across it a bit, Death Eaters liked to cast it on Muggles and order them to do horrific things, he probably saw the aftermath a lot"

He reached into one of the jars and deftly caught the spider within, pulling it out and dropping it onto his desk. "Imperio"

The spider leapt from his hand and caroused around the room on a silk swing, stopping to perform small dance numbers for some of the students, pulling a laugh from most of the room. The spider leapt back across the room and landed on the desk in a heap, starting to curl into a ball and roll around.

"You think that's funny?" Moody growled, freezing the class with his vitriolic tone "Total. Control. If you're under this curse and can't fight it you can be made to do anything. You can implant instructions with this curse and make the victim act normally for days, months, years as long as the caster can maintain their grip on the spell. We had a hell of a time figuring out who was under this spell back in the day, we never did figure out exactly who was under the influence and who lied about it"

There was no mistaking the look he gave the Slytherin half of the room and Harry knew exactly why, who knew how many of their parents got off scott free for their crimes during the war.

"It can be fought!" Mad-Eye announced, "And I'll be teaching you how, but it takes a strong will, more than most people can manage so your best bet is just to avoid getting hit by it. Now, you" He pointed at a blonde Slytherin girl Harry thought might be called Tracy. "Another"

"Uh" She stuttered for a moment, before glancing at Harry and brightening. "The Killing Curse?"

"Yes, the most well known and perhaps the worst" He gently lifted another spider from its glass cage and placed it on the table, not even giving it a moment to flee he pointed his wand at it and cast.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" He roared

A brilliant flash of green lit the room and with a sound like the wind rushing past their ears the spider simply...ceased. It dropped without a sound or a mark, no blood, no violence just...gone. Harry stared at the corpse of the arachnid but his mind was elsewhere while Moody explained the effects and counters the the killing curse. He wondered about his parents, if they'd died as painlessly as the spider and if there hadn't been a mark on them when Voldemort had stepped past their corpses to kill him. It seemed almost merciful compared to some of the spells he'd been told about in his training with Flitwick. Instant painless death was downright pleasant compared to blood boilers, entrail expellers, organ crushers or even simple bone breakers which were all certainly worse ways to die.

"-alled the Cruciatus curse" Neville was saying when Harry refocused on the lesson.

"Your name Longbottom?" Moody asked quietly,

Neville simply nodded nervously, but Moody let the moment pass without further questions. He pulled the last spider and placed it on the table, giving it a long look before coming to a decision.

"Engorgio" He pointed his wand, swelling it to the size of a dinner plate. "This will have more impact if it's larger" He explained, not seeming to notice half the class pushing their chairs as far as they could from the oversized arachnid.

Moody let out a quiet breath, "Crucio" He murmured quietly.

On the desk the Spider curled into itself horrifically and began to twitch like it was being shocked with electricity. Even in a creature so far removed from human he could see it's agony, the twitching and rolling in on itself, he knew if it could it would be shrieking in agony. There was a long moment of horrified silence before another voice cut through like a knife.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Hermione yelled shrilly, on her feet and with her wand in hand pointing shakily at the professor.

Moody raised his wand from the creature and they all watched sympathetically as it relaxed but kept twitching in remembered pain, even Ron looked sorry for the thing. Moody's rolling eye twirled around the room once before settling on Hermione's heavily breathing form, her eyes bright and angry, then dipped to the left and right of her and he nodded appreciatively.

"You're right to be horrified" He said evenly, letting Hermione drop back into her seat without comment. "It's pain, the worst you can imagine and with no physical effect except nerve damage, no broken bones, no bleeding to be healed. No need for knives and hot pokers with the Cruciatus curse, and if you leave it on someone long enough their mind just...snaps"

"These three curses are collectively known as the unforgivables" He continued quietly, the entire class hanging onto his every word. "And anyone casting them on a human shouldn't be forgiven, because the real secret to them is simple" he picked the last spider up and dumped it back in it's jar unceremoniously. "You can't just want to hurt, or control, or kill to cast them. You have to enjoy it, take pleasure in it...now get out, see you next week"

The room silently started to stand and collect their things, quiet conversations springing up between small groups.

"Then how did you do it?" Ron asked quietly, eyeing the man with wearily.

Moody laughed roughly and gestured to the dead spider, "I hate spiders more than you can imagine, that's why I used them instead of an animal that might have made a better example." he paused and the class slowed their packing to listen. "30 points to Gryffindor standing up for your morals, world would be a lot better off if more people did...by the way, what were you planning on casting?"

Hermione blushed crimson "I wasn't actually going to cast anything" She mumbled, "it was just-"

"Not you lass" Moody interrupted, pointing at Ron and Harry with a wicked grin "Those two"

"I just thought you might cast something on reflex if you saw a wand pointed at you sir" Ron admitted, "So I was gonna cast a shield"

Moody nodded and met Harry's icy green eyes, "I was going to pull her out of the way if you cast" Harry admitted coolly, getting another jagged grin and leading look. "Confringo on the floor in front of you" he added, "To cover our retreat"

"Make it 40" Mad-Eye amended, then addressed the students who hadn't filed out yet "And the rest of you remember that in future, shields are nice if you've got no choice but given the option use your legs to get out of the way and do something to cover your retreat. Save the fancy spell choice and banter for if you're ever strong enough to go toe to toe with the best, until then hit hard and fast then run, you're students not Aurors."

3 Weeks Later

Hermione wished she could work up the energy to care about the two schools that had arrived at Hogwarts last night for a once in a lifetime tournament but for the life of her she just didn't have the energy. Between her slowly expanding plans for the House Elf cause, her less important but much more personal plans for her best friends and her apprentice work, on top of usual coursework she was exhausted. Needless to say she was all full up on things she could reasonably focus on at one time and had to compartmentalise some of her fascination with new potential learning opportunities till she had more time. She glanced up at the Triwizard cup sitting front and centre in the hall scornfully, why anyone would be willing to risk their lives for some fame and the equivalent of around 25,000 pounds sterling was beyond her.

'Or maybe' A small voice spoke up within her, 'It's just that you know how 'glorious' near death experiences are and they all don't'

Based on the way half the school had loudly and constantly complained about the '17 years old or above' rule she was pretty sure he average student at Hogwarts was completely sure they were invincible. At least her friends had all had to good sense to disavow any attempts to enter their names in the goblet, even Ron who she'd normally assume would be all over the 'Eternal Glory' was conspicuously uninterested. She hadn't yet thought of a way to ask him about that that wouldn't come across as wildly insulting but she was certainly curious about it. Harry had also thankfully shown no interest at all in entering himself, which was just perfect in her opinion because she had no doubt if he somehow got his name in it would be coming out as the chosen competitor. She might be slightly biased but the idea that any of the 7th years who were, no offence intended, simply ordinary witches and wizards would be more 'worthy' than Harry was simply absurd to her.

"What is even in that book anyway?" Ron jolted her out of her thoughts, pointing at the small black book she'd been absently notating in all night. "I don't think I've seen you without it since the first day"

"I'm using it to jot down rune ideas" Hermione explained, intentionally leaving a portion of the books contents out. "I like to work on idea's between classes and at meals, actually I've been stuck on this combination that should-"

"Sorry I asked!" Ron yelped, turning back to his meal and studiously avoiding her gaze.

Hermione gave an inaudible sigh of relief, thankfully no matter how much Ron might enjoy studying Healing, if you presented him with extra work for anything else he couldn't get away fast enough. Next to her Harry was engaged in an animated conversation with Luna about the logistics of spending long times out in the wilderness with and without magical assistance. The fact that Luna was sitting nearly on top of Harry while they conversed was perhaps Hermione's biggest success since the start of the year. It turned out breaking a millenia old blood curse on the House Elves was much harder than getting Harry to be more accepting of physical affection. Although before she'd started that wasn't necessarily going to be the case, she was well aware how stubborn Harry could be when he set his mind to it. Thankfully he'd turned out to be shockingly receptive to the gentle addition of physical affection she'd introduced to their friendship, along with the much more spontaneous version Luna would sometimes add. That had been one of the very first lines she'd added to her list of things to confirm before she made any kind of move, making sure jealousy wasn't going to ruin everything. So far that particular issue had been a complete non starter. When she'd realised that the "Ravenclaw" robe Luna was wearing was actually one of Harry's modified to fit her it hadn't given her anything other than a pleasantly warm feeling in her chest.

Noting down in detail that she enjoyed watching the boy she liked be warm and sweet to the girl she liked was perhaps one the most unusual thing she'd ever put ink to paper describing. As far as she could tell neither Harry nor Luna were suffering from any issues on that front either, though it was hard to tell sometimes with both of them being so good at hiding their emotions. Still Luna had seemed perfectly happy when she hugged Harry in front of her and she knew for a fact Harry had blushed vividly when she'd given Luna a kiss on the cheek in front of him.

"-ampion...Viktor Krum!"

Hermione came back to herself with a start, clapping along with the entire hall and watching the stern faced young man Ron was such a big fan of walk toward the back of the hall and disappear into a side room. Now that she was paying attention again she noticed that the room had darkened noticeably and the main source of light was the large flame rising from the Triwizard cup. Thankfully hiding her embarrassment at being so caught up in pleasant memories that she'd somehow managed to completely miss the change in atmosphere. A second tongue of flame leapt from the cup, leaving a scrap of parchment fluttering down to be snatched from the air by the headmaster.

"The Beauxbatons Champion is...Fleur Delacour!"

That drew a significantly more raucous response with almost every boy in the audience clapping and hollering while the students from her school seemed completely distraught, one girl even bursting into noisy tears.

"Who do you think will be Hogwarts champion?" Ron asked excitedly, "I bet it's Angelina, she's gotta be the best 7th year"

"Thanks Ron!" The girl in question, a well muscled young woman with short black dreads and a broad smile on her face called down the table.

Harry smiled and nodded, "It'll either be her or Cedric I think" He gave Angelina wink, "But of course my Captain has the edge!"

"Not your Captain till next year squirt!" She replied with a laugh.

Their banter was cut off by the Cup finally spitting out the final name, Dumbledore snatched it from the air and glanced at it through his half moon glasses.

"The Hogwarts Champion is..." He paused and did a double take, rereading the paper again slowly. Finally he looked up and locked eyes with Harry.

"Harry Potter"

\----------

Silence. Like the entire hall had been put under his mum's spell and they were all stuck in a silent film, the guest schools looking between each other in confusion and the rest of Hogwarts were staring squarely at Harry himself. Next to him he felt Hermione's hand latch onto his arm and squeeze so tight he thought it might draw blood through his robe. Across from him Ron's jaw had dropped and he was staring at Dumbledore like he didn't believe what he'd just said and Luna was simply staring up at him in undisguised concern.

"Harry" She started, reaching out to put a dainty hand on the arm not currently under death grip, but before she could say anything Dumbledore's rang out again louder and stronger.

"Harry Potter, please proceed to the room behind the Hall with the other champions"

At the top table Professor Mcgonagall and Flitwick had both stood and were quietly conversing while the hall broke out in whispers and pointing. Harry stood, having the gently pry off Hermione's fingers as he went, he paused a moment to address his friends making eye contact with them one by one.

"I didn't put my name in" He whispered to them, but left without giving them time to respond.

He wasn't entirely sure he would make the walk if any of them didn't believe him so he'd simply left and started the long walk towards the far side of the hall. It felt like he was walking towards the gallows the whole way, with a thousand eyes on him and not a one of them feeling particularly friendly. Still Professor Flitwick hadn't taken a coward under his wing, so his head remained high and his steps were smooth and steady looking for all the world like he wasn't desperately trying to figure out a way out of this. He arrived in front of Dumbledore who had waited at the entrance to the hall and was giving him a measuring look.

"Head on through Harry" The older man said quietly, following him into the darkly lit room.

Inside the other two champions were standing silently on either side of a large circular fire pit, both of them seemingly lost in thought.

"You are ze third?" Fleur asked with a bewildered look.

Krum simply took one long look at him and grunted, returning his gaze back to the fire without comment. Harry walked slowly up to take his place staring deeply into the flames and considering how exactly this might have happened, and more importantly why. Behind him he heard the door burst open and a rush of people stormed in lead by Ludo Bagman with a grin like christmas had come early.

"Well there you have it!" Ludo exclaimed, "No idea how he got his name past the age line, but here's our Hogwarts Champion!" He gestured to Harry happily, seeming to completely miss that half the room was less than enthused.

"Zair must be a mistake!" Fleur exclaimed, "E' is far too young!"

"Irrelevant!" Bagman announced, "The age restriction was a rule we only put in this year, if the cup chose him there's nothing to be done but let him compete!"

"Madame Maxime!" Fleur stepped around the pompous man and appealed to her headmistress directly, "Surely zis little boy can not compete, 'e'll be killed!"

That was finally an absurd enough statement that Harry turned away from his contemplation of the flames and acknowledged the rest of the room. Making eye contact with Flitwick and meeting his questioning glance with a subtle shake of his head, gratifyingly his master seemed to believe him immediately and moved to stand at his side.

"We have no complaints from Durmstrang" Karkaroff announced smoothly, "If Hogwarts wishes to have a sub-standard competitor represent it that's not a problem for us"

"I'm afraid I 'ave to agree" Madame Maxime gave her student an apologetic look, "Zair are 3 schools and 3 champions, we have no way of substituting him without incurring a penalty from ze cups magic, so 'ogwarts will simply 'ave to play ze hand it was dealt"

"It's no surprise that it was Potter's name that ended up coming out of the cup" Snape's oily voice spoke up from the back of the room, addressing the two heads "Always finding some new way to get himself in trouble, been crossing line since he arriv-"

"Thank you Severus" Dumbledore's voice silencing the room, "Harry, did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?"

"No" Harry replied honestly, "I had absolutely no interest in entering this death trap of a tournament"

Snape scoffed loudly but was largely ignored by the room.

"So you didn't ask anyone else to put your name in either?" Dumbledore pressed.

Harry's gave the Headmaster a steady look, knowing exactly why Dumbledore was so desperate for this to be a simple case of Harry being a little too willful and getting himself into trouble.

"No, I didn't" Harry smiled weakly at the older wizard, "Sorry sir, it's going to be another one of those years I guess"

"Well" Albus sighed, rubbing his eyes over his glasses. "I suppose when you get right down to it there's not a lot to to be done. I'm afraid competing is mandatory Harry, as soon as your name came out the Cup bound you to attempt the tasks to the best of your abilities. If you attempt to refuse to compete or simply don't try..."

"Magic loss, possible death" Harry finished for him, "I know how these sort of things go sir, don't worry I know how stuck I am"

Karkaroff scoffed and scowled at the young champion, "A chance for eternal fame and glory and this is how you react? Maybe Severus is not exaggerating your arrogance as much as I thought"

Harry gave the man a dry look and simply gestured at his forehead, "Oh gee eternal fame for surviving something, I wonder what that would be like?"

Professor McGonagall's lips twitched up slightly before settling back down but Flitwick had no such restriction, laughing openly at the sarcastic riposte. A steady thumping noise sounded from the entrance and Moody walked into the room, stopping at the back and watching the room with sharp eyes.

"What I want to know" The grizzled man started, "Isn't how Potter's name got in there or why it was picked, if half the stories floating around Hogwarts are true he probably got picked legitimately" He pushed through several people in the room shooting him doubting looks, "I want to know why his name ended up in the cup in the first place"

Karkaroff rolled his eyes and cut in "We all know Professor Moody could find a plot to kill him hidden in a gift from his mother, even if the boy didn't put his name in the cup" He said doubtfully, "It was probably just some other student who thought it might be funny, the fact he was chosen means the cup must think he's the best choice, although what it says about Hogwarts that a 14 year old is the best choice..."

Moody laughed harshly, "I'm looking forward to seeing him wipe that smug look off your face Karkaroff, it wouldn't be the first time Harry Potter took you down a peg eh?" He looked meaningfully at the man's left arm.

"Alastor" Dumbledore said warningly, getting a reluctant nod from the scarred man.

Mad-Eye swept his eyes across the room, "If someone put Potter's name in I doubt it was just for good fun, this tournament had a catastrophically high fatality rate before it was stopped." He jabbed his finger at the ministry employees "No matter how safe you lot think you've made it, my money's on whoever did this hoping to see another death"

"They're going to be sorely disappointed" Harry finally spoke up, standing calmly with the fire at his back and facing the array of teachers and ministry workers without an ounce of give in his expression. "But if this was some sort of long con assassination attempt it was a risky one, what if I hadn't been picked?"

Flitwick chuckled from his place beside him, "That would be extremely unlikely" He explained, "Not to put too fine of a point on it, but this cup was enchanted by wizards and witches from a time when you held a wand in one hand and a sword in the other. No matter how much more magic our 6th or 7th years might know it would take the sum of your history and choose based on that. Unless our other students have been going on the sort of adventures that fill fiction books during their summer holidays there was really no one else it could have chosen"

"So someone who knew about the things that happened over the last few years" Harry mused, starting to look chagrined, "Which I just started telling people about. Are you sure that was the best idea professor?" he asked the diminutive man next to him.

Flitwick nodded confidently, "Absolutely, as soon as you start acting like the deeds you perform are something to be ashamed or afraid of you're setting up a poor habit where they're shameful by default rather than by the content of your actions" he lectured, completely ignoring the audience watching with varied levels of interest and frustration.

Harry nodded thoughtfully, "I hadn't thought of it like that, so you're saying is if I treat my own actions with the secrecy of something I'm ashamed of then I'll start to treat the actions themselves as shameful?"

"Exactly!" the part goblin cheered, "And you must always strive to treat each decision as-"

"As fascinating as this discussion is" Dumbledore interjected, and he genuinely did look interested in hearing it, "We must wrap this up before it gets much later, there's a rather large amount of work to do now that the champions have been chosen"

Barty Crouch stepped forward from the shadows at the back of the room with what appeared to Harry as far heavier lines on his face and a pale almost chalky complexion. Krum and Delacour stepped forward to flank the younger boy between them, all focused on the official ministry representative of the tournament.

"The rules of the Tournament are simple" He explained, "You may only take one magical item into each task, any additional items or equipment must either be summoned or collected without leaving the designated task area if possible. This means no enchanted clothing, jewelry, runestones or potions as well as a firm ban on having any other spells cast on you before you enter or potions in your system. The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help from their teachers of their schools to complete or prepare for the tasks. Due to the time consuming nature of preparing for, taking part in and recovering from the tasks the champions are excused from any and all classes and final year exams they wish not to take as long as they are using the time for preparation." He paused briefly and lowered the list of rules he'd been reading from to give the 3 a hard look. "The first task will be one of daring in the face of the unknown and will take place on the 24th of November"

Dumbledore stepped forward as Mr. Crouch stepped back, "The full list of all rules and regulations is available upon request from any of the head teachers and also from the Hogwarts library so don't be afraid to double check anything you're not sure about. On that note are there any questions or clarifications needed?"

"I have one" Professor Flitwick stepped forward, "Several weeks ago I took Harry on as my official Apprentice, as such any training we do is considered within the bounds of that relationship and not of one between a Hogwarts teacher and student. I want to be clear about that in case anyone tries to make a fuss"

There was a brief flash of mutiny from the two visiting heads but Dumbledore simply nodded along happily, "Understood, anything else?"

"You cannot be serious Dumbledore" Karkaroff objected, "that was clearly a lie to try and get around the rules of the tournament"

"Ah I'm afraid I must contradict you there Igor" Dumbledore said cheerfully, "Filius put in the paperwork to take Harry on before the summer holidays, well before whisper of this leaked to anyone but the highest levels of government"

"Now if that's all, does anyone wish to join me in my office for a nightcap?"

While Dumbledore attempted to convince the visitors to join him in celebrating the start of the tournament Flitwick and McGonagall gently led Harry out through the door and into the now empty great hall. The eerily silent hall filled with gloom and lit only by the false moon drifting by above them gave the usually boisterous room an almost reverent feel to it.

"Well I can't say this is how I saw the night going" Flitwick started cheerfully, staring up at the enormous moon over their heads.

Professor McGonagall made a faint noise of agreement, "Agreed, I must say Mr. Potter you have the most uncanny skill for getting into these situations" The older scottish woman trailed off slightly and for the first time Harry saw her at a loss for words.

Harry lips twitched up slightly, "I'll make sure not to embarrass Gryffindor Professor" He joked.

"I've no doubt about that" She agreed tightly, "Do try to stay alive at the same time?"

"Of course" Harry nodded confidently, "Whoever thought this was a good idea is going to regret it"

"See that they do, and don't be late getting back to the common room, I can practically hear the party from here" With that the stately woman left with small smile.

The master and apprentice stood in comfortable silence for a few minutes, looking for all the world like two monochrome statues lit by the moon and watched as the rest of the occupants of the room they had just left filed through the hall and out. Finally once the last of them had left the hall and they were sure they wouldn't be interrupted Harry spoke up.

"I'm not quite sure where to start" He admitted quietly, keeping his eyes fixed on the false sky.

Flitwick nodded thoughtfully, "You think Moody was right"

"Yes" said simply, turning his eyes to his teacher with a grimace. "It makes more sense than some student putting my name in for a laugh"

"Very well" The older man's smile had turned dark and foreboding. "Then our path is clear"

"We're going to up our training again aren't we" Harry said wearily.

"You're excused from end of year exams, what do you think?" Flitwick laughed

Harry simply shook his head and smiled, "Fair enough, I'll look forward to my new schedule then tomorrow?"

The Professor shook his head, "Day after I think, I suspect you won't be much use tomorrow morning. Now go and comfort your friends, they're probably worried"

Harry smiled weakly and headed for the door, not willingly to verbally acknowledge how worried he was about how they were going to react. The walk back to the Gryffindor common room was the longest it had ever felt and Harry couldn't help but compare it to walking into a deep dark forest with no wand. The portrait of the the Fat Lady loomed large, she was half drunk herself and lit up when she saw him approaching.

"Balderdash" He said quickly before she could start.

The portrait swung open with a squawk of outrage and what felt like a cricket bat made of sound smashed him in the face, almost sending him stumbling back. Before he could decide what to do a half a dozen hands had grabbed him by the arms and shoulders to drag him into the common room. All around him the room was full of partying Gryffindor's, the older students sharing mysteriously labelless bottles and cases of butterbeer spread out for the rest. Someone had gotten a wireless to play so loudly he could hear it almost filling the room with sound over the loud yelling and talking.

"You should've told us you entered!" Fred, or maybe George, yelled happily. "How'd you get past the line, and why didn't you tell us!?"

Harry kept looking around for some sign of his friends, "I didn't" He yelled back over the cacophony, "Someone must have-"

"Oi squirt!" Harry was suddenly pulled into a noogie, "What was all that about rooting for your captain when you'd entered!?" Angelina was grinning wildly though, "At least it's a Gryffindor!" She yelled into the room to a resounding cheer.

"Good show Harry!" Lee yelled, grabbing his hand shaking it firmly before turning back to the crowd. "Let's give him some space, we still have plenty of time to PARTY!"

Harry stepped further in, grabbing Lee before he could disappear back into the crowd, if anyone would know where to find someone in this mess it would be the man who organised most of them.

"Where's Ron and Hermione!?" Harry yelled into his ear.

Lee's face lit up, "Oh! Your little group are over by the fire!" He replied, "Got first dibs on the good seats for when you got back!"

It still took nearly 5 minutes to cross the 20 metres to where he knew they'd be, having to stop every few seconds as someone else shook his hand or congratulated him. Finally he squeezed between two 6th years and stumbled out into the area set aside from seating and and breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the back of Ron's ginger head next to what must be Hermione's bushy mane on the couch in front of him.

"RON! HERMIONE!" Harry yelled, stepping towards the couch and trying to get their attention over the music. "I-!"

He didn't even get the first word out before a blonde blur rolled over the back of the couch and leapt up into his arms, fastening her own around his neck and squeezing him tightly. Following just behind her Hermione had run around the couch instead of going over it and crashed into him from slightly to the side, her arms not quite making it all the way around both him and Luna. Ron was much more sedate, following the two at a walking pace and seeming incredibly amused by his predicament, though Harry could see the undercurrent of concern in his eyes.

"Girls!?" He asked incredulously, wrapping an arm around them both and holding them firmly. "What's wrong!? Is everything okay?"

"They were worried! Moron" Ron snarked from his position leaning against the side of the couch.

A small knot of worry Harry hadn't even realised he'd been nursing relaxed, "You believe me!?" He yelled, getting frustrated with having to have this conversation at yelling volume.

Ron rolled his eyes and jerked a thumb at the couch, "Get on the couch! It's got a sound dampening ward around it!" walking back to the couch and taking a seat before Harry could yell his response.

Harry looked after his best mate in consternation and then redirected his eyes to the two heads of hair buried on each of his shoulders, briefly glancing around to make sure no one was specifically staring at them and then squeezed them both a little tighter. Under the pretence of getting closer so they could hear him he rested his cheek on Hermione's hair and pulled them both tightly against him.

"We should get to the couch" He said reluctantly.

Hermione nodded and stepped back but not without interlocking her fingers with his on his now free hand, Luna on the other hand just shook her head firmly and squeezed tighter.

Harry lowered his head so his lips were next her ear and still had to half yell "Luna, It's too loud to talk here!"

"Carry her!" Hermione suggested, gesturing with her free arm.

Harry gave her a confused look but given he wasn't going anywhere otherwise decided to kneel slightly and fully wrap his arm around the lithe Ravenclaws waist, holding onto her tightly and lifting her a few inches off the ground. The made it the few feet to the couch without incident this way, aside from a brief bit of juggling that resulted in Harry sitting on one side of the couch with Luna sat sideways in his lap and his arm thrown over the back of the couch. Hermione sat down so close to him that she was pressing up against his entire left side and had lifted Luna's feet so the smaller girl was now sprawled across both of them. The suddenly massively reduced noise levels was like a cool breath of fresh air and Harry took a moment to enjoy it before finally acknowledging his friends again. Before he could open his mouth though Hermione had already started talking, giving his leg a reassuring squeeze at the same time.

"So we've narrowed down the people who could have entered you to anyone with access to the teachers offices" Hermione explained, "You can't just write someones name on a piece of paper and enter it, they'd have needed something you wrote yourself. Unfortunately we have no idea how well protected the coursework we turn in actually is so that doesn't narrow it down much. So instead of trying to figure out who did it we're just going to focus on getting you through this, I'll be going through the library tomorrow and finding anything I can about the history of the tournament. If we're lucky there'll be some sort of pattern to the tasks or exception in the rules we can use to your advantage."

Ron spoke up from his side of the couch, "I wrote Bill, Charlie and Dad letters, there's no chance at least one of them doesn't know something about this, they were way too smug about the whole thing" He held up 3 scrolls already tied off with ribbon and ready to go with one hand and took a deep draught of one of the unlabeled bottles with the other.

"I wrote to daddy too, he still has some friends around the world who might know something" A small voice spoke up from his chest area. "Sorry, I just heard your name come out and I remembered all those things Hermione said about...about how many people..." Luna's voice shook slightly and she started to lean away from him but stopped when he tightened his grip and fell back against his chest, "I just got to know you, I don't want anything to happen to you"

"It won't" Harry said confidently, a broad smile on his face and what he would absolutely deny were tears in his eyes. "Not as long as I have you guys to help out at least"

"Right!" Ron exclaimed, clearly uncomfortable with the emotional moment "Harry's survived way worse crap then some silly tournament, no matter how dangerous it's supposed to be!"

Luna giggled wetly and leant away slightly, surreptitiously wiping her eyes. "You're right, I somehow doubt sword fighting a Basilisk will come up during as a task"

"One time!" Harry exclaimed getting a loud laugh in response, "Now as much as I appreciate the help, for tonight lets just not think about it, we can start working tomorrow"

Hermione nodded in agreement and dropped her black book onto the table and grabbed two butterbeers between her fingers, passing one to Luna without prompting. Ron reached down his side of the couch and came back with another unmarked bottle and tossed it carelessly in Harry's direction, trusting his well trained reflexes to snatch it out of the air. Harry flicked the top off with his thumb and took a drink, almost spitting out the cold, bitter drink all over himself and Luna.

"Is this beer!?" Harry asked disbelievingly, then took a sniff of it. "Where'd you get beer?"

"Ronald" Hermione started to scowl,

"Oh come on Hermione!" Ron whined, taking another drink of his own safely out of reach. "One drink, Fred says 4th year is when they start letting the Quidditch players have a drink when they win a match, but there's no Quidditch!"

While she mulled that over Harry took another sip and sank back into the couch with a relaxed sigh, the stress and weight of the day flowing off his shoulders like warm water. As disgusting as this stuff tasted if Ron was telling the truth it was almost like a right of passage, he hadn't won a Quidditch match but this party certainly rivalled any they'd had from victories in that past. He took another draught and let the arm on the back of the couch drop over Hermione's shoulders casually, unknowingly making the decision on what to do about the alcohol for her.

"Fine!" She said, giving Ron a sharp look and trying to ignore the knowing look he had on his face. "One drink, but that's it!"

"No Problem" Ron saluted her with the bottle. "Now Harry, what happened in that little back room?"

2 Hours Later

In spite of the way the evening had started, if pressed Harry would admit that even with being forced into a deadly tournament tonight had still been one of the best nights of his life. He'd avoided being swamped almost entirely on the back of his Quidditch teammates, the flying foxes had taken one look at his position and had practically formed a wall with the twins and Lee. The cleverly placed noise dampening ward Hermione had quickly carved into the arms of the chair before he'd arrived had meant the loud conversation and music had been kept to a minimum. Finally and most importantly the gently snoring girl in his lap, the brunette talking animatedly under his arm and the loudly laughing redhead across from him were all still here. In retrospect it had probably been a disservice to them all to even be worried that they might not stand with him.

'I won't make that mistake again' He vowed silently.

"Alright alright" Hermione acquiesced to whatever Ron was loudly stating, "You're the healing apprentice, I'll take your word on it...I can't believe I just said that"

Ron just laughed, "I might not know much, but Quidditch and Healing are kind of my things" He bragged.

"And there's that ego" She rolled her eyes playfully and glanced at the clock over the fireplace, starting in surprise. "Is that the time? Merlin no wonder I'm tired, Luna, you ready for bed?" She glanced over at the girl who'd been happily following along 15 minutes before.

Harry chuckled, "She passed out pretty much as soon as you looked away" He murmured quietly. "Where is she sleeping by the way?"

Hermione's breath seemed to visibly catch at the sight of the young blonde snoring away against Harry's shoulder, but after a loud swallow she got herself back together.

"She'll be staying with me, my bed should be big enough" Hermione said,

Harry frowned lightly, "I mean I could go grab my tent for you if you like? It has two beds"

"I didn't want to assume..." Hermione blushed, getting an eye roll in reply.

Harry stood slowly without releasing Luna then turned and gently placed her down into Hermione's lap instead, completely failing to notice her turning red in response. He slipped through the much reduced party carefully, almost immediately getting accosted and having to slowly explain himself out of a conversation.

As soon as he was out of earshot Ron turned a piercing look on Hermione, "I know I'm not the most observant person in the world, particularly about feelings and stuff" He started slowly, lifting a butterbeer up to take a drink, "But whatever you've got going on here better not hurt them"

Hermione startled from her mesmerised staring at Luna's sleeping face and turned to face him with a panicked look. "I'm not doing anything" She tried to say casually.

Ron snorted "Unlike those two, I actually had a pretty normal childhood Hermione, I know what it looks like when someone has a crush" He chuckled quietly, "I've seen my brothers bring a girl home a time or two you know?"

"I-I'm just" She scrambled, tying to remember what her plan had been for if someone else figured out what she was doing.

"It's fine" He interrupted her feeble attempt to deflect, "I don't think you'd ever actually hurt either of them on purpose, but if anyone else saw what I'm seeing they might think you're leading them both on" He explained.

Hermione felt a sting in her eyes at the very idea, "No" She whispered, "I swear that's not what I'm doing"

Ron smiled reassuringly, "I didn't think you'd actually try that Hermione, I just wanted to make sure you realised what was happening. I know you can be pretty methodical about stuff but if you were somehow accidentally falling in love with them I figured I'd warn you"

A deep sigh of relief left the girl and she unconsciously squeezed Luna tighter, "No, it's not an accident or anything, I just...can I ask you a question?" She changed track suddenly.

"Sure?" Ron shrugged.

"Have you ever seen a wizard or witch with multiple partners?" She asked earnestly.

Ron's eyebrow raised slowly, "Like a mistress? Because some rich purebloods-"

"No I mean like...is it legal to have multiple wives in the Wizarding world?" Hermione rephrased, "I've looked through every law book I can find, but the legal framework of marriage for magicals is really vague"

A look of realisation spread over Ron's face, "Ah" He said lamely, finally realising exactly what was going on. "Well, keeping in mind I'm no expert" He cautioned. "But from what Dad's told me there really isn't much law around getting married. As long as everyone's Human, not under spells or potions and is of age pretty much anything goes"

Hermione's sigh of relief was so loud Luna actually stirred and she froze to let the girl settle again before continuing, "What about taxes, or inheritance, or family names?"

"Taxes?" Ron asked with a puzzled look, "Like what businesses pay on money they take? Why would being married affect that?"

Hermione's eyebrows shot up into her hairline, "Wizards only pay sales tax?"

"If by that you mean the Ministry gets a little money for everything sold in Diagon or Knockturn then yeah?" Ron replied

"Oh..." She mulled over that for a moment, "That's one thing, what about family names and inheritances?"

"Well names are easy" Ron explained, "You pick whichever name you wanna keep and keep it, if it's an old family name you'll usually keep that one just because a lot of old magic takes the whole 'he who bears the name' schtick pretty seriously though. I think there's a form you fill out with the ministry so they know about it? I don't know anything about inheritance law though, Bill's the firstborn so that's his problem"

Hermione's face had slowly lit up as the explanation continued, "So say hypothetically, Luna, Harry and I start dating, like all three of us. Would that be a big deal?"

Ron scoffed good naturedly, "Hypothetically" He made air quotes for that, "You'd probably get a lot of jokes about Harry being a playboy, but honestly no matter who dates Harry they're gonna get flack"

"That's fine" Hermione muttered smiling down at Luna warmly, "I can handle flack, what about me and Luna?"

Ron quirked an eyebrow, "What about you two?"

"Would anyone care if we were together too?" She asked cautiously, realising she'd never actually gotten Ron's opinion on such things before.

"No?" Ron was simply confused though, "Why would anyone care about that? Is that a muggle thing or something?"

Hermione opened her mouth to explain, a look of profound relief on her face but was cut off by Harry's return.

"Got it!" Harry voice startled them so badly Ron spilt his butterbeer all over himself and cursed loudly enough to wake Luna.

"Sorry" Harry apologised sheepishly, handing off his tent to Hermione and helping a sleepy Luna to her feet.

"No worries" Ron waved him off, using a quick purifico to clean himself.

"Alright boys, we're heading to bed, how does this thing work?" Hermione asked, taking Luna's hand and tugging her gently over to her.

"Tap twice with your wand on the top and then place your hand on the pointed bit when it's finished self assembling, you're already marked as a user" Harry explained.

"Thanks again Harry" Hermione gave him a brilliant smile, "And thanks for the advice Ron"

Ron held his hands up like he was being held at wandpoint, "Not advice, don't want credit either way' He said with a smile.

Harry slumped back down next to Ron and snagged a butterbeer off the table, but before he could take a drink he noticed Hermione hadn't left yet and was giving him a very conflicted look. Finally she leant down to whispered something he couldn't quite catch into Luna's ear, who perked up for the first time since she'd drifted off and turned to him with a sleepy smile. Before he could react properly they were both leaning down and pressing a kiss into his cheeks and whispering a goodnight into his ears. It took a very long minute before Harry had the presence of mind to react to that, and they were already long gone by then. He looked down at the butterbeer in his hands and was surprised to see at some point it had been swapped out with another beer. Around him the Quidditch team were leading the last of the parties reduced guestlist in a round of teasing and wolf whistles he could barely hear through the ward. Rather than try and reply when he knew he looked like a tomato he gave the room in general a two fingered salute and got a round of good natured laughter back. Once the teasing, and his blush, had died down enough for Harry to feel comfortable talking again he took a long drink and looked askance at Ron.

"Hey mate?"

"Yeah Harry?"

"What just happened?"

"I have absolutely no idea"

\----------

AN: And we're done! A set up chapter that kind of needed to happen so I tried to inject some more relationship advancement to keep it fun. I hope the changes are starting to become more apparent, although I must admit the big ones won't be really visible until 5th year even though they're happening behind the scenes now.

Thank you to everyone that read or reviewed, I really appreciate it.

Seeya soon!


	6. Adding Oxygen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I missed a few days, so in apology have the rest!

The revelation of what exactly Harry would be facing in the first task didn't come all at once, it was a slow trickle of disparate evidence that came in from multiple sources and eventually pointed to a single result. The first piece came from Ron in a roundabout way, none of his family giving up specific information about the tasks but the knowledge that both of his brothers were still in the country at all was a hint all it's own. Luna's father gave them their next clue, and whatever Hermione might have thought about the man's sanity under usual circumstances it was clear he was actually quite the investigator. Less than a week from her letter he'd replied with a shockingly straightforward letter about the large group of foreign, romanian speaking workers that had taken up residence in Hogsmeade over the last few weeks. Unfortunately he seemed to be attributing it to a plot of Dragon/Human hybrids planning to take over the town and use it as a base, but the basic information was useful. The final nail in Harry's proverbial coffin came when Hermione finally received the book she'd had to order from Flourish and Blott's with the complete history of the Triwizard tournament. It had revealed a simple fact that confirmed what they'd all been suspecting since the letter from Mr. Lovegood had arrived. The first task of the tournament overwhelmingly involved either combating or at least dealing with a dangerous magical creature, and with all the evidence stacked around them they knew exactly which creature it would be.

"A Dragon" Hermione whispered, dropping the stack of notes she'd been reading through desperately looking for a pattern that didn't match her fears. "They're going to make Harry fight a Dragon" She looked up from her work to see Ron staring at her with a haunted look on his face.

He closed the book on tournament rules he'd been trying and failing to comprehend for the last few hours and dropped his head into his hands, taking a deep breath to get control of his emotions.

"It makes the most sense" He murmured, his voice unsteady. "What now?"

"I don't..." Hermione's voice grew louder as she spoke. "How do they expect one wizard deal with a Dragon!"

Ron was shook his head morosely, "Charlie told me it takes at least 8 Dragon keepers to subdue them safely"

Hermione was building up steam though and didn't seem to hear him "And it was supposed to be a surprise! Who did they think would be competing in this thing, three Dumbledore's!?"

Around them the few people on their free period in the common room continued on without noticing, the tiny inverted sound dampening ward Hermione had taken to erecting whenever they were working doing it's job in keeping people out of their business.

Ron's brow furrowed "That's a good point"

"Of course it is, the lunatics who started this whole thing must have rocks for brains!" Hermione ranted on, slamming a fist onto the table in frustration.

"No, Hermione!" Ron interrupted before she could get any more worked up, "Seriously, that's actually a good point, even the people who organised this thing can't have actually expected a student to beat a Dragon right?"

"What difference does it make!" She threw her hands into the air in frustration, "Beat, evade, steal from, it's all still going to involve going toe to toe with a XXXXX class wizard killer with no backup!" She shoved the notes and equipment they'd been using into her bag and stood up sharply. "We need to tell him, right now and hopefully Professor Flitwick will have some idea what to do"

"You should tell him" Ron confirmed, "I'll go see Hagrid, if there are Dragon's nearby he might have some idea about it" He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile, "We'll figure it out, we always do"

Hermione didn't acknowledge the attempt at comfort, simply continuing to walk out of the portrait hole as if she hadn't heard him which to be fair she very well might not have. He was certainly having trouble focusing on anything other than the cold hard fact that Harry was going to be standing in front of one of the deadliest creatures in the world with nothing but his wand in 10 days. Ron shook his head and stepped through the portrait hole after her, he had no time for wallowing or worrying, every minute he wasted was one less that Harry had to prepare. He started down the stairs at a jog, trying to bring up every piece of potentially helpful trivia he had heard about dragons from his brother over the years. Unfortunately he hadn't ever had any interest in the subject before, so that was largely limited to 'big, angry lizards who can breath fire', about as much as the average teenager would know about the things. The rest of the trip down the stairs and out onto the ground's felt like an eternity spent lamenting his lack of interest in his brothers job before now.

"Hagrid!" He called, slamming his fist into the massive door "Hagrid are you in? I need your help!"

"Ron?" The Half-Giants voice called from within, sounding confused. "Wha're yeh doin' here, shouldn' yeh be in class?"

"We know the first task is Dragon's!" Ron blurted out,

"How'd yeh know tha'!?" Hagrid shouted, looking around to make sure no one was listening before dragging Ron inside and slamming the door. "Who told yeh abou' the Dragons!?" He asked bewilderedly

"No one" Ron explained breathlessly, "We figured it out, Charlie's still hanging about, the tournament always uses magical creatures and there are a bunch of people speaking Romanian that have turned up at the Three Broomsticks" Ron stumbled over to Hagrids hand carved table and fell into an oversized chair. "So it's true" he whispered, "I'd hoped we were wrong."

Hagrid followed slowly, putting a kettle on as he went before sitting down across from the lanky redhead and sighing deeply, his beetle black eyes crinkled in concern.

"I was goin' ter tell Harry" Hagrid explained, "was jus' waitin' for the righ' time"

Ron let out a helpless laugh, "Hagrid, Harry is going to be fighting a Dragon the right time was as soon as possible!"

Hagrid shook his head slowly, "S'not that simple Ron"

"What's he up against" Ron asked quietly, shaking his head when Hagrid offered him a cup of tea. "Do you know what species, or what he'll have to do with them?"

"They didn' tell me what they'll be doin' with 'em" Hagrid admitted, "But we got 3 of 'em, one fer each champion. A Chinese Fireball, a Swedish Short-Snout an' a Horntail, beau'iful creatures teh lot of 'em. Now I shouldn' a tol' yeh tha'" Hagrid admitted, taking a loud bite out of a rock cake and giving Ron an uncommonly serious look. "But Harry's me friend an' I don' want 'im gettin' hurt"

Ron smiled apologetically, "I know, I'm sorry about-"

"Don' worry" Hagrid shook his head and smiled, "Yeh're worried about yer best mate, s'okay"

"Yeah, still..." Ron shook his head, "Anyway, not to push your hospitality too far, but as a Dragon expert anything we should know about those three?"

Hagrid turned a little red at the praise, "I know wha' yer doin'" Hagrid gave the sheepish boy a long look, "bu' I migh' know a thing or two"

Ron pulled a scrap of parchment and a half broken quill from his pocket, but hesitated when Hagrid shook his head and gestured for him to put them back.

"Yeh can' make notes" He explained, "can' risk it"

"Right" Ron said, already dreading trying to memorise everything Hagrid was about to tell him.

"Now the Chinese Fireball is a quick blighter an' they got a faster turn on em than mos' breeds, if it get's in the air yeh'll have trouble hittin' it with anythin'" Hagrid lectured, and once again Ron was reminded why Dumbledore had let the man teach a core class. He might not be the most well read man, but damn if he didn't know his magical creatures. "I doub' they'll let the poor beasties loose like tha' though so the bigges' problem will be its fire breath. Most of em can shoot twen'y or so fireballs before they need a break an' they're ruddy fast too, bes' shot would be ter tire it out, get it ter throw fireballs till its out from a safe distance."

Ron nodded along to the explanation, desperately trying to apply every learning aide he'd picked up studying healing to memorise what he was being told as fast as possible, unfortunately Hagrid was on a roll.

"Swedish Short-Snout's 'ave got these beau'iful blue scales on em, but don' let how pretty they are fool ya, their fire's hotter than hell. Reckon it could burn bone to ash in a few second's an' yeh gotta watch the horns, they'll like to headbut yeh if yeh get too close. Can' tire out a Short-Snout though s'got a short recharge time on it's fire breath an' they're too smar' to let yeh fool em like tha'. I hate ter say it, but if Harry get's that one he shoul' aim for the eye's and do whatever he needs to fast, can' mess aroun' with that one, even standin' too close to its fire can give yeh really nasty burns"

That actually gave Ron something he could do to be useful once he'd brought all this back to his much more research focused friend, ask Madame Pomfrey to start teaching him about healing burns. It would probably give the game up regarding his pre knowledge of the task but honestly that was the least of his worries as far as things went at the moment.

"Now yeh Horntail is real majestic, but its a righ' nasty beast as well an' I hope tha's not the one Harry gets" Hagrid's face took on a much more concerned look for this one, in sharp contrast to his enthusiasm on the previous two. "Its fire breath isn' as hot as the Short-Snout, but it can breath it further and hold it for longer, can' just avoid tha' one it'll jus' cover the whole area in fire. It's got a ruddy great spike on its tail too an' it'll use it if yeh get close, an' make no mistake it's a fast blighter fer it's size so if he get's close he better keep an eye out fer it. To be hones' I don' think there's a good way ter beat the Horntail, maybe yeh coul' lure it away or blind the thing, but mos' dragon keeper's jus' stun it a few dozen time's, can' get near it otherwise"

Ron seriously considered getting up and headbutting the wall at that, of course they included one that was blatantly more dangerous than the other two Dragons. After all if there wasn't an obviously much deadlier option than what would Harry inevitably have to fight? His frustration must have shown on his face because Hagrid recognised it immediately and moved to reassure him.

"Don' worry too much, I'm sure they wouldn' have them actually figh' them, they'll probably jus' have the Dragon's guardin' summat shiny. Dragon's love to hoard shiny things" Hagrid said reassuringly not realising he was only making it worse, honestly stealing a Dragon's treasure sounded worse than trying to beat the thing.

"Thanks Hagrid" Ron said weakly, standing up and giving the huge man a pat on the shoulder. "I really appreciate all that, and I'm sorry again about before"

"Not a worry Ron, s'good ter see yeh outside class again" Hagrid waved off happily, walking him out.

As soon as the cabin door closed behind him Ron broke into a run back to the castle, if his internal clock was right he had less than 15 minutes to get some lunch and get to Potions. In the mean time he really hoped Hermione had had as much luck as he'd had, three breeds, one for each champion and basic list of skills and potential weaknesses, this was starting to feel just barely this side of suicidal.

\----------

When Hermione made it to Flitwick's office and started knocking frantically on the door there were a great many things going through her mind, most of them about the fiery death of her closest friend. So she could be forgiven for simply barging in when the door wasn't immediately opened after her first few knocks and simply starting to speak without waiting to be acknowledged.

"They're going to make you fight a Dragon!" She exclaimed before realising what she'd walked in on and and turning bright red.

At the far end of the office Flitwick was sat at his desk with a large pile of paperwork piled up around him and a quill in hand, apparently getting through some marking while Harry was busy. The older man looked up at her entrance and smiled mischievously, gesturing for her to remain silent and come closer, something she did without taking her eyes off Harry. Between her and Flitwick Harry was hanging, shirtless and upside down with his legs hooked over a floating metal bar, in front of him a large book was floating where his head came to rest. Every few second he would bend himself nearly ninety degrees to bring his head almost even with his knees and then carefully lower himself back down again. Beneath him a mostly transparent concave shield was holding steady between him and the ground, the ripples off magic swirling through it just barely visible from her angle. Flitwick winked once at her and with a subtle twitch of his fingers Harry's voice suddenly rang out loud and clear through the room, sounding exhausted but still speaking strongly and loudly.

"With courage drawn from too many cups!" Harry recited, bending and returning with a grunt "of Ale, sworn to stay after dark. And stem that horror with a sweep of their swords!" Again he bent and dropped, a small spray of sweat falling from his hair and landing with a slight shimmer on the shield he was maintaining beneath him. "And then, in the morning, this mead-hall glittering. With new light would be drenched with blood, the benches stained red, the floors, all wet from that Fiend's savage assault - and my soldiers would be fewer still, death taking more and more!"

Hermione would like to say she delayed telling Harry about her presence behind him out of some wish to not interrupt his training or out of concern that he may hurt himself if she shocked him mid sit up. In truth the view of Harry's shockingly well toned back muscles stretching and tensing while he exercised with a bright sheen of sweat drawing her attention to every sharp contour had shocked her silent. When Flitwick had unsilenced the room for her and she'd realised he was reciting Beowulf with the sort of focus and passion he usually reserved for talking about Quidditch, she simply froze entirely. Flitwick seemed to realise her predicament, but aside from a knowing look he simply allowed her to stand there enthralled and went back to his work.

It was funny, growing up she'd read stories of knights or lords reading poetry to their lady's and found the idea to be rather silly on the face of it, she liked to read so why would she want someone else to do it for her? Now though, she couldn't quite imagine anything else she'd rather do than simply stand here and let him continue talking until the story was complete. Perhaps her only regret was that Luna wasn't there with her to enjoy it, but she swore that if everything worked out as she intended this year she'd ask Harry to recite this for her as well. Unfortunately as much as she was enjoying it after a few minutes of shiver inducing orating Hermione's faculties came back to her and she remembered just how serious her presence here was.

"I'm sorry to interrupt" She started with genuine regret in her voice.

No amount of warning would have been enough for Harry in that moment, and if he wasn't magically attached to the bar he knew for a fact he'd have fallen straight off. As it was he still twisted violently and nearly wrenched his back when he heard Hermione's voice suddenly speak up from behind him. Beneath him the shield flickered once before suddenly bursting like a soap bubble and vanishing into the ether.

"Hermione!?" he yelped, grabbing the bar above him so it would release him and rolling in midair to land on his feet. "Wh-when did you get here!?"

The girl in question wouldn't quite meet his eyes, and to his almost painful embarrassment her eyes were trailing across his chest and stomach carefully like she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. He couldn't exactly blame her for that, the robes they wore every day here didn't exactly give much to work with in showing how his body was changing as his training continued. Six months of healthy eating and a ridiculously rigorous strength and flexibility routine imposed by his teacher had left him with a decent amount of muscle on his once skinny frame. In his probably overly humble opinion he was almost looking as well built as his Quidditch captain was, and considering Angelina's workout routine and frankly legendary abs that was fairly high praise. Just because he was actually somewhat proud of his body didn't mean he wasn't beyond embarrassed at being caught shirtless though.

"Sorry!" He shouted, turning and running back to the pile of clothes on the seat facing Flitwick's desk and quickly pulling on the loose exercise shirt he'd left there one. For the sake of his continued ability to look her in the eye he chose to pretend he didn't hear the faint noise of complaint she'd made when he did so.

"So" Harry mumbled, hoping desperately that if he pretended he hadn't been reciting reciting poetry she would too "what's up?"

"If I heard correctly" Flitwick interrupted from his place behind the desk, "She said that you would be fighting a Dragon?"

Hermione nodded, her blush fading quickly now that attention was back on the issue at hand, "We're pretty sure that the first task is going to involve you either fighting, evading or stealing from a Dragon" She explained firmly, "we've got a preponderance of evidence and Ron is going to get final confirmation now"

To her surprise rather then turning white in shock or getting angry at the knowledge of what he was being forced to face Harry simply folded his arms and appeared deep in thought.

"Well it's good we got a warning at least" Flitwick sighed, "still, to think they would be pitting students against a creature like that, I do wonder about the sanity of these organisers" He gave Hermione a reassuring smile, "That was some excellent deductive work Miss Granger, if I could give points for something like this I certainly would"

Hermione shook her head, "It was a team effort, and unfortunately knowing doesn't really help us that much" She leant heavily against the wall next to her, "How do you prepare to fight a Dragon in ten days."

"It's more than we've ever had before" Harry said simply, giving her the same warm look that melted her insides to goo that he had given her at the world cup campsite. "Don't put down what you three accomplished, you found out something no one else has in barely a fortnight by putting together a bunch of information no one else could have."

Hermione smiled a little weakly, "Thank you, I just wish it had been better news"

"Nothing we can do about that" Harry said casually, reaching up and grabbing the floating piece of parchment he'd been reading from and discreetly placing it on his Master's desk. "We have a goal now, and I'm sure there's plenty of reading material on Dragon's in the library." He gave her a confident smile, "But first, we need to tell the other two champions"

"What?" Hermione asked dumbly, not quite sure she'd heard right. "Why would we...why should we do that?"

Harry chuckled and slipped his shoes on, throwing his robe over his workout clothes absently, "Because if I was them, I'd want to be told" he said simply.

"What if they don't believe you, or what if they accuse you of cheating and you get in trouble!" Hermione exclaimed, imagining how easily this could be twisted against them.

Harry turned briefly back to his teacher and gave him a questioning look, "I'm sorry to cut this short sir, do you mind If I start early tomorrow to make up for it?"

Flitwick waved him off happily, "Not an issue, under the circumstances I could use the time to read up a bit, hopefully I'll have something useful for you soon on how we can pit your skills against a Dragon, keep me informed."

Harry nodded and grabbed his bag, stuffing the last of his things into it absently and starting for the door with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Harry they could seriously get you into trouble if they wanted to over this!" Hermione repeated, following as Harry led her out of the office and into the hall, "No one is supposed to know the details of the first task yet"

"I know" Harry replied calmly, not slowly his gait at all, "but that doesn't matter, if I get in trouble but they have a better shot at surviving the task I can live with that"

"We don't even know what the punishments are for breaking the rules of the tournament!" Hermione said in a rush, "The rulebook doesn't list anything specific, what if they give you a handicap, or what if it triggers something from the cup itself!?"

Harry shrugged and gave her a reassuring smile, "If it was anything as bad as instant magic loss or anything like it that would be in the rules right?" He asked

Hermione was starting to turn red in frustration and had rushed slightly ahead of him so she could look at his face while they walked, "Probably, but that isn't a guarantee! You're the only person who isn't in this thing by choice Harry, you need to look out for your own safety first!"

Harry chuckled at that and gave her a side eyed smile, "Hermione you know I can't do that, we're talking about risking me getting into some trouble in exchange for giving two teenagers a fighting chance against Dragons"

"No we aren't!" Hermione stepped completely in front of him and spun so she was facing him, effectively stopping him dead in the corridor. Her hands were clenched so tightly at her sides they were shaking, alongside her flushed face and the frustrated tears in her eyes Harry could see she was on the verge of screaming at him. "We're talking about how someone put you in this tournament to try and kill you, and every risk you take gives them one more opening to work against you! What if there is some obscure punishment and it turns out it was Karkaroff who entered you and Krum tells him about this, you said Professor Moody implied he might have something against you right?"

Harry stepped forward into her personal space and reached out to grasp her clenched fists, gently forcing them open and sliding his own hands into them, doing his best not to wince when she clenched them so hard he felt his bones creak.

"I can't-" Harry started, but corrected himself, "I won't let being afraid stop me from doing the right thing Hermione" He squeezed back as well as he was able with his half crushed hands and tried to smile as reassuringly as he could. "Of course I'm worried this will backfire, but even if it does I'd rather face whatever that punishment might be than watch someone else walk to their death against a Dragon" Slowly he started to rub his thumbs on the back of her hands in soothing circles and to his surprise her grip relaxed slightly in response.

"You're an idiot" Hermione bit out through clenched teeth, although he could feel it had no real bite "Why can't you just do the selfish thing for once, those two both volunteered for this stupid thing, why do you have to take the risk?"

Harry chuckled sheepishly and gave her a lopsided smile, "Because I'm in the position to, because my brilliant, amazing friends figured out something no one else could and that means I have the knowledge and they don't"

"They wouldn't tell you if they'd figured it out" Hermione said mut

inously, the last of her frustration fading and a sort of resigned acceptance settling in her chest.

"Maybe" Harry allowed, "But I'm still going to tell them anyway"

Hermione sighed explosively and let his slightly mauled hands go, "Fine" She said exasperatedly, "But if we're doing the dumb thing we're going to do it in a smart way, tomorrow, once we've put together a plan about how to do it"

The Next Day

Luckily for Harry the reaction of the general populace of Hogwarts had been, if not 100% supportive at least seemed to be stuck on 'Well he's what we've got'. So aside from some sideways looks from the Hufflepuffs for his 'Cheating' and the barely increased hostility from the Slytherins he was generally getting a lot of positive responses from his schoolmates. He was convinced that that was the only reason he wasn't being literally burnt in effigy rather than simply having every male in the Great Hall attempting to set him on fire with his eyes. Hermione's plan to get his message across to both champions had been simple and far more embarrassing than Harry's initial plan of simply using his invisibility cloak to wait till they were alone and telling them then. As she put it, if he wanted to reduce his chances of being seen as a saboteur or some sort of trickster he had to come across as bluntly and honestly as possible. Which was why he had walked up to Fleur Delacour at breakfast and asked to speak to her privately in front of all three schools and was currently standing around like an idiot while she stared at him like he'd burped in her face rather than asked her a question.

It took what felt like a good 3 or 4 lifetimes before her face settled back into the cool mask she seemed to prefer and she nodded regally and stood, gesturing for him to lead her from the hall. The rush of whispers and gossip he heard as he left settled a small knot of dread in his stomach and he just knew he was going to somehow be punished for his attempt at a good deed.

It wasn't until he walked her out the front door and onto the grounds that she finally spoke up, "If zis is a poor attempt to ask me on a date, I must tell you I decline" she said mockingly, and Harry couldn't help the bubble of laughter that burst out him at the thought.

"Sorry, sorry" he waved off her profoundly offended look easily, "It's definitely not, you're not really my type" He admitted, "Honestly I just needed to talk to you and Krum and Hermione told me it would be a good idea if I was as open as possible. So we're gonna go down to the lake where he trains in the mornings, hopefully he's not in the ship yet"

She cocked a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at him, "And you zink zat we will believe anything zat comes from anozzer champion" She asked archly.

Harry shrugged and turned slightly as he spotted Krum drag himself out of the freezing lake with nothing but swimming trunks on, and Merlin if that wasn't an impressive feat, used to cold or not Hogwarts lake was damn near frozen during Autumn.

"Honestly whether you believe me or not isn't really a factor here, I'm just not having your deaths on my conscience because I tried to keep some stupid advantage in a competition I don't care about" Harry explained, before waving an arm and getting Krum's attention, the older stockier boy scowling at the approach of his competitors.

"Vat" He asked simply, toweling off without an ounce of concern.

Harry stepped to the side slightly so he could keep the other two champions both in his line of sight at the same time and gave what he hoped was a confident smile.

"So, I'm just gonna come out and say this and then you can both question me if you want" Harry slipped his hands into his pockets casually and leant back against the tree he'd positioned himself against. "The first task is going to involve us either fighting, evading or stealing from a Dragon"

The simple delivery seemed to make what he was saying take a little longer to sink in, but he could tell when the information hit them both like the Hogwarts Express. Fleur turned a shockingly pale white, bordering on grey and shook slightly while Krum's scowl grew even more pronounced and a viciously dark look crossed his face.

"Vhy?" Krum asked grimly,

"Why tell you?" Harry asked, getting a sharp nod in return, "That's easy, I would have been a pretty crappy person if I didn't"

Krum's dark look took on a more thoughtful bent and Fleur's shaking was starting to slow down and turn more to anger.

"'ow do we know zat you are not lying" She asked crossly

Harry shrugged, "You don't" he admitted, "But you're welcome to follow the same breadcrumbs I did and make your own decisions." he carefully laid out the train of thought his friends had explained to him last night, being careful to leave names and specifics out but giving them enough that they could investigate for themselves.

By the time he was finished Fleur was starting to slowly swear in french and the look on Krum's face could have stopped a birds heart at 20 paces if Harry was any judge. Luckily it seemed they were both taking his words seriously, which was pretty much all Harry needed to see, even if they told on him now it was clear they would start preparing anyway.

"Zank you" Fleurs voice was almost a growl, "I will investigate myself, but if zis is all true I will, how you say, owe you one?"

"Da" Krum agreed, "I vill not tell vere this came from, you haff my thanks"

Harry gave them both a grin and turned to head back into the castle, waving over his shoulder as he went. "Great!" He paused, turning his head to look at them from his periphery, "Oh and if you want some advice? The groundskeeper here at Hogwarts is something of a Dragon expert, he loves strong brandy and I'm 90% sure he has a crush on Madame Maxime, do with that what you will!"

Behind him Viktor and Fleur were exchanging a rather baffled look, both of them not quite sure what to do with all the information that had just been dumped on them. Finally after a long moment watching Harry disappear back through the castle doors Viktor turned to his fellow champion and gave her a nod of acknowledgement.

"Good luck" The surly man nodded and headed back into his ships, already planning out how to confirm some of the things he'd been told.

"Pareillement" Fleur replied unsurely, turning back towards her school accommodation rather than breakfast, suddenly without an appetite.

The Next Day

Harry met his Master as the dawn was breaking across the eastern sky, he'd woken up early to get his morning exercise out of the way so he could get as much time with Flitwick before the day really began. Now they were seated in their usual places in his office, Harry staring out the window on the back wall and taking a moment to enjoy the Dawn light while his muscles ached pleasantly.

It was funny in a way, when he'd gone to Flitwick at the end of last year he'd thought if he was accepted he would be learning a wide range of magic. That the older man's breadth of knowledge would give Harry an edge in knowledge and technique, instead it was nearly the opposite. Wizards as a magical being simply weren't built to master spells in a quick fashion, they lived extraordinarily long lives and most simply attuned to the spells they used most often as a matter of course. The sort of brute force approach that Flitwick and Harry were attempting with his shield spell was only possible because they were attacking it from every angle they could think of. He had cast it until he could do it without the words, then again until he didn't need to wand movement. Next he'd had to do it while physically distracted, forcing him to block rather than dodge while running or exercising. Lastly had been what Hermione had walked in on yesterday, the final part of his shield training was to cast it while exercising and while reading aloud, the idea being if he could cast it on instinct while mentally and physically distracted he could consider the spell mastered. Because the truth of the matter was simple, a single spell practiced to the edge of perfection would serve him better than 20 obscure curses he would have to think about before he cast.

For his Master having the option to combine his casting, exercise and his studies on literature and philosophy at the same time as was nothing short of the best idea he'd ever had, and though he'd never admit it to the small slave driver he sort of agreed. The most surprising thing he'd learned since his return to Hogwarts and Flitwicks introduction of mental exercises into his physical training was just how much he enjoyed reading poetry. His first read through of Beowulf had been done without any distractions and had spoken to him in a way nothing else he'd read ever had. While he certainly didn't agree with a some of the opinions presented by the titular hero the idea of acting with bravery, loyalty and generosity certainly resonated with him. Being willing to fight and, if necessary, kill to protect the people you loved or were responsible for was also something he'd been struggling with. It was difficult to square away his own actions against what he considered the actions of a good and moral person, particularly on the odd cold morning when he woke up with his hands feeling like they were covered in ash.

In the end he had gone to his Master with his concerns shortly after his name came out of the cup, about how conflicted he was about his past actions and his fears that in trying to fight people like Voldemort he would end up becoming just like them. He and Professor Flitwick had talked for hours, about the necessity of taking action even if you had to stain yourself to do so and about the difference between killing and murder. They'd discussed how it was natural to feel a sense of satisfaction, no matter how tainted, when you survived and someone trying to kill you didn't and how that didn't make you a monster. In the end he had come to understand, even if he didn't like it, that his willingness to act decisively when the people he cared about were in trouble and his reservations about how far he was willing to go to protect them was natural, was human. That conversation had also informed his decision on what the first offensive spell he was going to attempt to master was, turning his attention from simple stunners and blasters to something he believed would serve him better

"The Chinese Fireball would be your best matchup" Flitwick mused suddenly, flicking open a book that was nearly as large as he was and skimming to the relevant passage. "Your shield is without question powerful enough to absorb a single blast from an average member of its species as long as you kept your distance. Which is why I doubt you'll be facing it, no offence intended but you my apprentice are catastrophically unlucky when it comes to getting into danger"

Harry tried to look offended, but reluctantly chuckled along with the older man, "We thought that too" He admitted

"So that leaves the Short-Snout and the Hungarian Horntail" Flitwick flipped back and ran his finger carefully down the page listing the details of first one, then the other Dragon in question. "The Short-Snout's fire is hot enough even the backwash over the edges of your shield would cook you alive, but it's also got the least endurance of the three. Hagrid's assessment of it's intelligence isn't incorrect but he simply isn't the sort of person who would think of a way to exploit that fact, If you face it you'll need to be offensive, hit it hard and drive it back from your target and it will avoid you if it feels you're a real threat. They're been recorded fleeing from Dragon poachers if threatened, even leaving clutches of treasure or eggs behind to save themselves." Flitwick sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "It's cruel, and I wouldn't normally recommend such a tactic but if you come up against it do whatever you have to to survive"

"But we don't think I'm that lucky either" Harry said with a resigned smile.

Flitwick rolled his eyes, "I'm not usually one to believe in such things, but your ability to end up facing incredibly dangerous magical creatures borders on the level of a curse. So if we work under the assumption that you will end up facing the last and by far the deadliest option, worst case scenario we will be pleasantly surprised"

"Yeah that's what we figured too, although we didn't have any idea about how to actually deal with the other two either" Harry explained sheepishly.

"I have rather more experience in planning out dangerous missions than 4 teenagers, no matter how much trouble they seem to get in" Flitwick replied drily

"Now the Horntail presents a much more serious threat" Flitwick paused for a moment and rested his forehead in his hands, sounding weary but amused "Not to imply that a 14 year old fighting a any Dragon isn't a serious threat, but to your particular skill set it will be the hardest to deal with. It's fire will act much like the Short-Snout's although thankfully without the same level of heat, your shield might hold the stream of fire it can breath for a second or two before it cooks you or shatters it. The Horntail can maintain it's firebreath for nearly 8 seconds on average so you won't be outlasting it in an endurance contest, maybe if your shield was more suited to elemental damage..." He trailed off for a moment, then shook his head, "Something for later, now we know you can't hold it off, so you'll need to keep moving as fast as you can to stay ahead of its breath. Try to avoid getting close unless you absolutely have to, the spike on the end of it's tail is as thick as my arm and it'll be moving as fast as the average cleansweep in a dive. Horntail's are by far the most aggressive breed of the three, you won't be able to intimidate it like the Short-Snout or outlast it like the Fireball and unfortunately we have no idea what the objective is going to be outside speculation"

Harry nodded seriously and leant back in his chair with a grim sigh, "That's the problem we kept bumping up against last night, realistically I should figure out some way to avoid it, or get passed it, but what if that's not the challenge?"

Flitwick nodded, "Exactly, so we're going to adjust your physical training to focus on sprints more than endurance. It's only 10 days but if you're even a little faster by then it might make the difference if you simply have to evade it. If you have to fight it, or subdue it in some fashion though then you're going to need something more offensively minded and faster to cast than your current arsenal..." He finished leadingly.

"I've decided on which spell I want to start on next anyway, so it's good timing at least" Harry tried to joke

"You were tossing up between a stunner or blasting hex last we spoke" Flitwick nodded hesitantly, "I appreciate why you'd choose them over a more...deadly spell Harry but I think against-"

Harry shook his head slowly, interrupting the man mid suggestion. "You're right, I wanted to focus on them because they weren't so dangerous, but after our talk after the I got picked for this...A stunner wouldn't have stopped the Troll, or the Basilisk, or even the Acromantulas and if I just stun a Death Eater what would I even do with them? Turn them into the ministry and watch them walk right out with a pat on the back for surviving their horrible ordeal being 'forced' to torture and murder people?" Harry shook his head violently, and gripped the armrests of his seat with a white knuckled grip. "No, the next spell I'll learn is going to be the piercing curse"

Professor Flitwick smiled sadly, but Harry could see the small ember of pride underneath the understanding.

"Are you sure, that curse in particular is, aside from being difficult to learn, almost always fatal if aimed correctly" He paused slightly, "It's a spell that does not allow much room for half measures"

Harry smile was brittle but still he nodded. "I'm sure, I've read up on a lot of different spells in the last 2 weeks since I decided the stunner wasn't going to work and it suits my strengths perfectly. I've got good aim, great reflexes and I can move around a lot more freely than most wizards can, it's also the only spell I could see that would have been useful against pretty much everything I've faced so far. A small nearly invisible blast of magic with a razor sharp point that can punch through even magic resistant hide with enough power, and if worst comes to worst I challenge anything to take a powerful piercer to the eye and walk it off"

"Most Dragon's have a second semi-transparent eyelid to protect hem from environmental damage, but if you hit it dead on with a curse it should penetrate pretty easily." Flitwick agreed, "However, if you managed to hit it in the roof of the mouth like you did the Basilisk? If you can hit it on the correct angle you may very well be capable of felling the beast, although I've never heard of someone doing so in such a fashion" He quirked a bushy white eyebrow and continued drily, "For some reason letting a Dragon open its mouth long enough to throw a spell in usually results in being set on fire"

"Staring into the Basilisks open maw was one too many anyway" Harry snarked back, "I'll try and make that a last resort"

"I only ask that you try" Flitwick chuckled, "We won't have much chance to get you truly proficient with the piercer before the event, not enough time. So instead I'm going to be running you through several utility spells and giving you a good foundation in several curses, variety will be your best weapon here. We'll start with the piercer though, I'll have a few more to get the basics down of by tomorrow. I'm not happy about it, but you need to take these next 10 days off your normal classes, I'll provide you with as much structure as I can around my own work but you're going to have to practise by yourself primarily"

The Professor glanced up at the ornate clock he kept over the exit to his office, starting slightly at the time.

"We're out of time, head down to the lake and cast into the water, I don't want to risk anyone getting hit by accident" Filius ordered, all traces of levity gone, "I'm assuming you've already read up on the incantation and wand movement?" Harry nodded, standing and preparing to leave silently while his teacher lectured. "The Piercing Curse requires a lot of focus to cast effectively, to get any sort of decent result you'll need to narrow your focus to as small of a point as possible. Try to throw some leaves onto the water and focus on only a single one as you cast to help with that"

"Yes sir" Harry smiled his thanks and opened the door to step through.

As soon as he the door was safely closed behind him Harry broke into a run, trying to make it back to breakfast before his friends left in hopes of letting them know where he would be so they wouldn't worry. While Ron and Hermione had already left for the double potions he was supposed to be at himself thankfully Luna had been held back and was still at her table with a few of her fellow Ravenclaws. Luna sitting facing the table with 3 Ravenclaw girls standing around her in a small semi circle and it looked, at least to Harry that they were simply conversing before heading to class. He approached with a broad smile, glad to see that the sweet girl he knew and loved spending time with was managing to interact with people outside of their small group. He knew she'd been quite lonely before Hermione had taken her under her wing and he assumed the reasoning was much the same as his own for not making friends and hadn't had the good luck to get dragged into it like he had until Hermione came along.

"-eed to get to class, the teachers have already left" Luna's voice was odd sounding to Harry, as if there was an edge of something to it he didn't recognise.

"You can go straight to class" The centre of the 3 girls standing around her said sweetly, "Just as soon as you hand over that necklace, it looks ridiculous and every time someone asks you about it you go off about some imaginary creature, we're sick of you making Ravenclaw look bad"

Harry's gait slowed dramatically at that, the greeting he'd been about to call out vanishing before it left his mouth, he approached more silently now while around him the rest of the school filed out. He noted quickly that Luna was correct, the teachers had already left through the staff entrance and were no doubt settling into their respective classrooms ready for the first mornings class.

"I'm sorry" Luna said regretfully, "But it was a gift from my mother, so I'm afraid if you want something to protect you from Wrackspurts you'll need to look elsewhere"

The leftmost girl giggle meanly and held her hand out, "So your mother was as crazy as you? That explains a lo-"

"My mother was not crazy" Luna said crossly, sounding more angry than Harry had ever heard. But still she refused to look back at what Harry now saw were her bullies. "And neither am I"

That drew a round of laughter from all three, "Oh please, you believe everything that your dad prints in that rag he writes, if that doesn't make you crazy nothing would" The centre one spoke again, "Now stop stalling or we're going to be late" Harry could almost hear the ugly smirk from his position directly behind the trio, "Or do you think one of you "Friends" might come back and help you"

"How do you think she got mixed up with Potters group anyway?" The right girl mused cruelly, "She was blushing the other day, reckon she just had to offer Potter a few 'favors' and he let her hang around him like a lost dog?"

"Nah I bet it was Weasley, or maybe both!" The middle replied, leaning forward and reaching out to grab the back of Luna's neck, whether to untie her necklace or hurt her wasn't really relevant at that point. "Now give us the necklace, Looney-"

The sound of a throat clearing behind them startled all three into spinning around in shock to find Harry looming behind them, a look of impending violence on his face.

"I-"

"We were ju-"

"We didn't-"

The trio of bullies had clearly been expecting a professor or a prefect because even surprised they had sickly fake smiles on and premade excuses ready to spit out. Unluckily for them they were talking over each other and making every work incomprehensible, not that Harry would have listened to a single thing they had to say after hearing the vile way they'd talked to his friend.

"What. The. Fuck. Do you think you're doing" Harry snarled, the only one he was vaguely familiar with being the ringleader who he was pretty sure was called Marietta who looked quite taken aback by the look on his face before she schooled her features again and went to speak.

"Shut up" He growled, silencing the three with a glare that promised future violence if they didn't obey. "Piss off, before I do something I'll regret"

They stood there for a few seconds before they seemed to realise simultaneously that they shouldn't be looking this gift horse in the mouth and bolted for the door. The pair left behind stayed silent for a minute, Harry studying Luna silently while he pulled his frustration and anger under control, unwilling to express it to the young woman in front of him. At the same time Luan was studiously refusing to look him in the eye, staring at his chin with an obviously faked sense of dreamy calmness, looking for all the world like she was reading a book printed on Harry's robes.

Harry broke the silence first, his voice still rough but lacking any real heat, "How long" He asked simply, feeling another spike of frustration when she simply gave him a quizzical look. "How long have they been treating you like that?"

"I'm not sure what you mean Harry?" She answered with the same fake confusion he'd heard when she'd told the three girls to find their own wrackspurt warding items.

Only now he recognised what the edge to it was, Luna was afraid, afraid of being surrounded with no one to help her by much older students at first, and now, afraid of him. A small part of Harry knew that was only fair, if he had looked as angry as he had felt he had probably looked pretty vicious. Still he felt a barb of pain wrap around his chest and constrict slightly, irrational or not the idea that Luna had thought, even for a second that she needed to be afraid of him hurt, a lot.

"I got here early enough to hear what they were saying" Harry explained, burying the hurt with ease of long practice, knowing that now wasn't the time to talk about it. "They were trying to steal from you, and they were implying...well they were talking complete nonsense. Has that been happening a lot since we became friends?"

Luna shrugged non committedly, grabbing her book bag and making to stand up, only stopped by how close Harry made drifted to the Ravenclaw benches, "I have to get to class Harry" She murmured, looking anywhere but at his eyes.

"Please" Harry asked, his anger draining out like water through open hands, "I can't help if you won't talk to-"

"I don't need help!" Luna suddenly burst out, glaring up at him with a mixture of anger and shame. "I've dealt with this since my first year, and I don't need any help dealing with it now!"

"I didn't mean-" Harry started, trying to explain himself but was cut off again.

"And what would you do anyway! Make me tell the teachers? What would be the point in that, I tell them my things are going missing and they ask the rest of Ravenclaw" Luna had started to tear up in frustration, "Who would all just tell the teacher I'm forgetful, or lose things and blame people all the time and who would tell them the truth!? Pretty much everyone know what happening, but they just don't care! And once that's happened the teachers are going to think I'm making it up and the people who are taking my stuff are going to be angry that I tried to get them in trouble!"

Harry's memory momentarily flashed up a similar scenario from his own childhood, every attempt to get Dudley punished in primary school being met with disbelief and a letter home, which led to a far worse punishment. He understood where Luna was coming from, better than the small girl could possibly realise given how closely he'd kept his younger years a secret out of a lingering sense of shame.

"No, I've dealt with this for 3 years, I can deal with it for a few more and then it won't matter!" Luna suddenly stood up, standing almost toe for toe with Harry, although her forehead was barely level with his neck. "Now I'm going to class-"

Harry took the half step between them and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her against him tightly and resting his cheek on top of her head. She started to struggle slightly, some immediate instinct to reject the affection she was being given but calmed almost immediately as he started to talk.

"Before I started at Hogwarts I grew up with my Aunt and Uncle" Harry started quietly, scanning the room as best he could from the angle his head was at, once he was satisfied they were along he continued. "You saw my Uncle at the end of last year, and I'm sure you might have noticed that he didn't like me very much" Luna nodded into his chest, leaning into his warmth almost unconsciously. "That isn't new, he and my Aunt have hated me since the moment I turned up on their doorstep on the night my parents died. They were never shy about showing it either, It wasn't like they beat me or anything but they always made sure I knew I wasn't welcome in as many ways as they could manage. I spent so long hiding the way they'd treated me from everyone, because it didn't matter what I said there was no one who could get me taken out of their care"

Luna finally reacted to his hug and story, her own arms coming up to wrap around him tightly and giving him a good squeeze, although she refused to look up from his chest still.

"At least that's what I told myself, what was the point in worrying them if they couldn't help? I would just be being selfish if I dumped that on them. Really I just didn't want to acknowledge that anything was wrong, because then I'd have to acknowledge how I felt about it, if I pretended it wasn't a problem I could just...keep moving." Harry took a deep cleansing breath and started to rub Luna's back slowly. "The truth was I felt angry and ashamed all the time, here I was supposed to be some sort of great wizard and I wore rags and was still, deep down, afraid of my fat muggle uncle and cousin. I hated that part of me, that small quivering little boy that was so scared of being tossed away that he cooked and cleaned and got tossed scraps. At least I did until I spoke to Professor Flitwick last year, he was the first person I ever told any of that, although I'm sure Ron and Hermione had hints of it. Maybe he didn't walk down to their house and make them change, but he gave me the tools to do it myself, made me realise I was giving them the power they had over me"

There was a long pause during which Harry simply kept rubbing Luna's back gently while he waited for her response.

"It started in first year" Luna admitted quietly, still not looking up. "At first it was just a few things here and there, a quill or something would disappear and I just figured it was Nargles. They can be mischievous and carrying a quill or piece of parchment off was perfectly normal, but when I started telling people that it suddenly got worse. Books started to go missing, inkpots or even homework sometimes would just disappear all things that I actually needed, not just minor inconveniences" Luna gave a weak chuckle, "For just a little while I actually thought they were being nice, something would go missing and they'd blame the Nargles and I thought maybe that was their way of saying they believed me, and that my things would reappear soon"

"But they never did" Harry finished,

"Sometimes they did" Luna corrected, "but never anything useful, and slowly more and more people started to laugh when I'd ask where my things were, until I just stopped asking people. At the end of every year I put a list up on the Ravenclaw notice board and some of it comes back, and then I just wander the castle hoping I'll find some more of my things. Sometimes I get lucky and find some of it, last year I got far luckier than usual" Harry gave her a questioning hum "Last year I came across Hermione outside Professor Babblings office, and I knocked for her because she looked like she really wanted to but couldn't make herself do it. Then when Professor Babbling decided that we would be spending the summer together if Hermione wanted to get her apprenticeship and I was so happy. Even if a teacher was making her I hoped it would be like having friends"

"I hope it wasn't just like having friends" Harry couldn't help but tease gently, getting a giggle back.

"It was so much better than that" Luna said happily, leaning back to meet his eyes again. "Hermione was trying so hard to be my friend, even though she kept putting her foot in her mouth" She giggled again, "But she always kept trying, and then you and Ron accepted me so easily and all of a sudden I had three friends instead of none! I never felt like you were just humoring me for Hermione's sake, it was like..."

"Like I genuinely enjoyed your company, whether you were friends with Hermione or not?" Harry finished for her

"Yes!" Luna exclaimed, "Exactly! And then I was worried that it was just a summer thing, that we'd get back here and we'd be separated by our years and it would all stop, but it didn't!" She was beaming now, but slowly that smile faded into a sad look. "And then my winter clothes disappeared, all of them the first night we got back and I was almost late to the Runes test I had to take to join 4th year with Hermione. When she asked where my jacket was I just told her Nargles had taken them" She smiled guiltily, "I knew that she wouldn't want to start an argument if I insisted it was something she didn't believe in, so after asking a few times she just let it go."

Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration, that this had been happening since the very first day and all of them had somehow missed it, whether Luna was trying to hide it or not was frustrating to hear.

"Well it was a clever idea" He admitted grudgingly,"but..."

"But why didn't I just tell her? or you? or even Ron?" Luna asked, getting a nod in return, "There are a lot of reasons, but if I'm completely honest I felt like a burden, like if it got any harder to be my friend you guys might stop all together. And when I thought about that I felt weak, like a real friend would be able to handle their own problems and wouldn't dump them on each other."

"That is almost precisely the opposite of what being a friend is" Harry chuckled, "Luna, we want to help you because you matter to us" Harry shook his head and reluctantly released the younger girl and stepped back slightly, bringing his hands up to cup her cheeks instead. "You aren't a burden, or a charity case that we let hang around us who has to walk on eggshells. You matter to us, to me, so much"

"Thank you" Luna whispered, her eyes half closing in happiness while she tilted her cheek into his palm.

"So no more secrets like this?" Harry asked, unintentionally drifting a little closer, a strange fuzzy feeling settling into his stomach at the sight of Luna leaning into his touch so gently.

"I promise, but what are we going to do about this?" Luna murmured

"Well" Harry whispered, licking his lips nervously and guided Luna's face closer to his own, her eyes widening and her cheeks pinking slightly as she caught the look in his eyes. "We should start by-"

"Harry!" A breathless voice yelled from the entrance. "Mr Bagman needs you for a...oh"

And like that the moment broke, Harry stared at Luna in confusion, like he'd just realised how close they were before his eyes widened in panic and he dropped his hands to his sides.

"Sorry!" He half yelped, not noticing the flushed look being directed at him. "I didn't-!"

"I'm really sorry to interrupt" an incredibly nervous Colin Creevey was walking into the hall and very pointedly not looking at either of them, "But Mr Bagman sent me to find you for an official tournament event and we're already really late"

"It's okay" Luna hid her disappointment well, "We'll talk again tonight, okay?"

Harry gave her a weak smile, his cheeks were more than a little pink, "Sounds good, as long as you don't get detention for being so incredibly late to class" He laughed nervously.

Colin smiled nervously and turned back to the entrance, "I'm really sorry to rush you but I was supposed to find you like 20 minutes ago, we really have to run"

"Right" Harry nodded and gestured him to go ahead, throwing an apologetic look over his shoulder.

A soon as the disappeared out the door Luna collected her things giddily and headed off to the first class of the day that she was already incredibly late for, luckily it was charms and she was sure Professor Flitwick would understand if she said Harry had temporarily detained her. In spite of having to tell her crush and close friend something she was ashamed of, nearly having her mother's butterbeer cork necklace stolen and having to prepare to confront her tormentors she couldn't help but start to skip.

\----------

The trip to this "Important tournament event" as Colin described it passed in almost complete silence, Harry having to almost jog to keep up with the ridiculous pace Colin was setting and Colin seemingly too embarrassed to say a word to him. They reached the correct room quickly and Harry paused at the entrance, his hand on the handle Colin had indicated and a conflicted look on his face.

"Colin?" He asked

"I won't tell anyone!" The smaller boy answered quickly, still not quite making eye contact. "I promise I won't, I'll swear it if you want!"

Harry raised a hand and gestured for him to calm down, smiling in relief, "Thanks, I appreciate that Colin"

The boy smiled nervously, "No problem, good luck in there!"

Inside the room was a relatively small classroom that appeared to have been refitted to host a small event, at least based on the multiple tables covered in purple velvet set up against one wall. The room was nearly full of people, with the other two champions sequestered near the entrance and talking quietly to their respective heads, while a photographer and woman he'd never seen before were standing in the centre of the room. just to the right of the entrance he had just walked through Professor Dumbledore was engaged in a lively conversation with Ludo Bagman and Mr. Ollivander. Unfortunately the first person to notice him was Ludo, which meant his incredibly loud greeting drew everyone else's attention immediately.

"There he is!" Bagman shouted excitedly, "Our last and youngest champion! Are you ready for the official wand weighing Harry?"

"I hadn't heard of it until just now" Harry replied drily, "What's a wand weighing"

"Why it's an integral part of the tournament! We're going to have our best wandmaker assess each wand to ensure they're fully functional, we can't have your main tool failing in the middle of an event after all!" Bagmans smile was all teeth and about as fake as the nails on the woman who was currently staring at him like a piece of meat. "And of course a quick photoshoot, Rita Skeeter here is doing a piece on the tournament for the Prophet as well"

The ridiculous looking woman stepped forward, her hair so thoroughly hair sprayed into elaborate curls it wasn't even moving as she walked and her face pulled back into the fakest sweet smile Harry had ever seen.

"Please to meet you Mr. Potter, I've heard so much about you" She demurred with a surprising amount of sickly charm.

Harry held a hand out and did his best to keep the look of concern off his face, "A pleasure" he said simply.

She shook his hand and giggled with faux girlishness and he had to fight the urge to wipe his hand off on his robes when she finally released it.

"Do you think I could take a moment of your time for a quick interview?" She asked sweetly, batting her eyes in what he was sure she thought would be enticing.

"I'm terribly sorry Miss Skeeter, but Mr. Ollivander has already been here longer than expected" Dumbledore interrupted pleasantly, giving Harry a warning look before smiling at the reporter again. "We will have to get a move on"

Harry gave her what he hoped was an apologetic smile, though he was sure it came across more as slightly ill and moved over to where the other two champions were lined up in front of the velvet tables. They were positioned in such a way that they were fanned out in front of the covered tables, with the cameraman moving around them in a circle snapping pictures. As his fellow champions wands were tested and presented like items being shown at an auction, complete with small demonstrations of magic on each one Harry was wondering if he should be nervous. The last time his wand had been described by the maker he had called it a wand that shared a core with Voldemort's and destined for great things. Somehow he doubted that the average prophet reader would be ecstatic to hear about that particular point of comparison between Harry and the Dark Lord he'd somehow stopped as a baby.

"Mr. Potter" Ollivander finally said, staring at his right arm with gleaming silver eyes.

Harry twitched his wrist in a well practised motion, catching the wand that fell into his palm with an ease of a thousand attempts and flicked it casually between his fingers for a moment, ending with the tip grasped in his hand and the handle to the wand maker.

"Ah yes" He murmured, rolling the wand lovingly between his fingers, "I remember this wand well, It was such a curious choice"

Harry smiled warily at the man, hoping he wasn't about to expand on that "It's been a wonderful partner, saved my bacon more than once"

Ollivander checked his wand over for far longer than either of the others, but thankfully did not expand on his initial comments and handed it back without incident declaring it to be in excellent condition. Unfortunately that wasn't the end of the, at least in Harry's opinion, a complete waste of time as they jumped straight into taking more staged photos to fill out the live ones already taken. The entire thing began to get out of hand immediately, with the almost drooling cameraman trying his best to get Fleur front and centre while Skeeter kept trying to bring Harry into the more dominant position. Krum managed to successfully skulk out of the way for the most part, and was returning Harry's envious looks with surprisingly friendly, if rather small smirks. Finally after a dozen group shots in various configurations and several individual shots each (Though Harry would bet money Fleur suffered through twice what he had) they were free to go.

Frustratingly several hours of valuable training time had passed with that little detour, and with his new knowledge of Luna's troubles in her house front and centre in his mind he was ready to work off some negative emotions. Harry left the room at a jog heading out towards the lake and ignoring the other students moving between classes in his hurry to get started. He arrived at the edge of the massive blue sheet of water and took a single deep breath of the ice cold air before letting everything around him fall away, focused only on the wand in his hand pointed firmly out onto the water. His worries about the Dragon, his conflicted feelings about Hermione and Luna, his rage at the way Luna had been treated and his vicious wish to visit on the people involved the suffering they'd inflicted on her, it all emptied out of his mind steady stream.

One of the major reason the piercer was considered particularly difficult to learn over say, a blasting hex is simple, blowing things up is fun and easy to picture in your mind. For the piercer though you had to narrow your focus to a single point, the more you mentally acknowledged the things around the tiny point you were aiming for the less power it had. On top of that you had to visualise the spell punching through what you were aiming at which added a level of split focus most people simply couldn't maintain with any reliability. Which left the image Harry had been maintaining, he put his attention on one of the single leaves floating peacefully on the surface a few meters away from him. After a few minutes of concentration his focus had narrowed to the point that he felt he couldn't see anything except the leaf and he carefully visualised a tiny hole appearing in the centre of it then punching through the water behind it with the force of a spear thrust.

"Transfigo" Harry whispered, flicking his wand up, then down and jabbing it at his target.

A white shard of energy lanced from the tip of Harry's wand and connected with the centre of the leaf, punching a neat hole through it the size of three of Harry's fingers side by side. There was a brief moment where nothing else seemed to happen before a violent splash of water rocketed into the sky, the hole the spell had punched into lake water rapidly filling with the water around it and shooting a small geyser into the air as the pressure equalised. Harry watched as the water rained down in front of him and a wave of displaced water rocked up onto the shore he was standing at with a smile. He still had a friends stolen things to help find, a Dragon to fight and an almost kiss to freak out about.

For now though,

"Transfigo"

He had a spell to practice.

\----------

AN: And that's the final piece of setup before the first task! Luna's problems with her house are out in the open, Hermione has discovered an appreciation for epic poetry (when read by her shirtless crush) and Ron is being the best bro he can be in the background. The champions are in the know earlier than expected and Harry has taken a step onto a difficult path with a lot of roadblocks along the way. Thanks for baring with me on all the setup here, as much as I'm a fan of all this character stuff I'm looking forward to trying my hand at combat next chapter, hope you had fun!

And thank

P.S. Full disclosure the next chapter is written in it's entirety and is just awaiting some serious editing to get my first ever fight scene down right, so it should hopefully be out in a few days.

Thanks!


	7. Backdraft

"No violence!" Hermione burst out frustratedly, squeezing Luna tightly from the younger girls position pulled firmly up against her side. Since the moment Hermione had heard the first hint of what had been going on she'd wrapped Luna up in a hug and refused to let her go. "Honestly Ron, what kind of example would you be setting if you just stormed into a common room and started threatening an entire house!"

"Touch my friends and pay?" Ron grumbled, "Or how about 'Actions have consequences'?"

Hermione gave him a pointed glare, "You can't threaten an entire house into submission over something like this" She sighed wearily and trailed off into a whisper, "Although I'd certainly like too." She perked back up indignantly, "As much as I think what they're doing is disgusting the Professor's won't take our side if we've gone around violently threatening people. Besides I'm sure there are people in there who have no idea what's going on, we'll just turn them against us if we do that"

"Would be satisfying though" Ron grinned at Luna, who was simply looking around at them in wonder, like she couldn't believe how quickly they'd jumped onto her side. "Imagine Harry walking in through the front door with his sword and telling them all to give your stuff back before he starts stabbing"

Luna giggled helplessly at the thought, picturing her petty academically minded housemates facing an enraged Harry with a sword and wand in hand, Hermione reluctantly cracked a smile at that as well, and Harry was simply staring dreamily at the ceiling.

"As gratifying as that would be" Harry interjected after enjoying the daydream for a moment, "I've been really trying to work on not treating Hogwarts problems like Voldemort problems, so far with Draco being a mute around me it's going well and I'd like to keep it that way"

"Exactly" Hermione said, "The real answer is really quite simple, we need Luna to be out of that environment entirely"

"I don't think they let people change houses" Luna interjected.

"There's no mention of it happening Hogwarts a History either" Hermione agreed, "But I don't mean changing houses, I just mean changing where you sleep and where you keep your things"

"Uh" Ron held up a finger, "I know Luna's been in our common room a lot lately, and slept over that one time but wasn't that pretty against the rules?"

"Technically yes, but with a little twisting of what the rules are saying exactly..." Hermione trailed off leadingly with a wide smirk. "Technically you can't wander the halls after curfew, but it doesn't say you have to be in your common room, just to not wander the halls"

"Right, but doesn't it say we have to sleep in our own dorms?" Luna queried with a confused sounding voice, "Surely there's some sort of rule to keep people out of each others dorm rooms?"

"Again technically it says that 'Students must not reside within the dorms of another house" Hermione explained, "Which doesn't explicitly say you have to be in your own dorm, just that you can't be in any other houses dorm."

"Right" Ron said in agreement, "Which is the problem, she can't stay here with us cause if anyone tells she'll get in trouble"

"No" Harry interrupted, a look of spreading realisation on his face. "She can't stay in Gryffindor or she'll get in trouble, but-"

"But if we take your tent, and set it up somewhere in a classroom with some wards to keep people out..." Hermione finished for him, a brilliant smile on her face.

"Than she's not wandering to halls, and she's not in another houses dorm!" Ron shouted in realisation.

"But what if someone saw me going in or out of the room?" Luna queried, "couldn't they damage the tent or something? I don't want to get your things stolen or damaged too"

Hermione waved her off, "I've been working on a runestone to secure a campsite since you and Harry started talking about going camping over the summer. It'll need to be modified slightly, but no one will pay attention to you going in or out of the door. I think I might come and join you as well, the tent has two beds and I don't think it would be fair to have you all by yourself over there."

"Besides, you can just hold onto my invisibility cloak" Harry included absently, "That plus whatever defences Hermione can set up should keep anyone from touching or finding it. Besides my tent has its own defences, if anyone tried to steal it I get alerted and I'll be able to track it down."

"But!" Luna interrupted, looking vaguely alarmed, "I can't just hold onto your invisibility cloak! It's a family heirloom, what if something happens to it!?"

Harry laughed, "I trust you" he said simply, "And if it gets damaged or lost in the process of saving you from something then." He shrugged, "If I had to choose you or the cloak I'd choose you anyway"

"So" Ron interjected before Luna could go any redder, the little blonde almost curling into herself at Harry's thoughtlessly romantic declaration. "We find a well placed classroom. I'll start cleaning it and clearing out the crap-"

"Language!"

"The stuff while Hermione wards it to he-, wards it really well. Meanwhile Harry will give Luna his cloak so she can go collect all her things from Ravenclaw without being noticed and Harry will go back to his training?" Ron summarised,

Harry shook his head, "I'll head to Flitwick and tell him what's going on just in case someone tells him that she's gone missing. He can't really punish anyone because we don't know who's actually doing it, but if I tell him what we're doing I'm sure he'll understand."

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked concernedly, "I know he's your Master and everything but this is still really twisting the language of the rules"

Harry nodded, his face twisting slightly into a faint scowl, "The three this morning were getting ready to actually touch Luna, to take something physically off her which they've never done before, right?"

Luna shook her head and shrank a little in her seat, still a little worried about how quickly that had escalated, she'd gone from not even knowing who was taking her things to someone trying to actually take something off her neck in the great hall.

"I'll explain what's been happening and how it was escalating this morning and I'm sure he'll understand why this is for the best" Harry smiled reassuringly, "trust me he won't want this going any further either, he knows exactly where it leads in the end"

"If you're sure" Hermione agreed and turned her head to look down at the girl molded to her side, "But what do you think Luna?"

"I...are you all sure?" She asked quietly, looking from person to person and not seeing a single ounce of doubt in any of them.

"Absolutely"

"100%"

"It's either this or strangling Ravenclaws at random"

"Ron!"

A burst of helpless giggles burst out of the younger girls mouth before she could stop them and slowly got louder and wetter until she was curled into Hermione's side laughing and crying helplessly. Harry stood from his place across the table and walked over to kneel in front of the breathless girl, looking like he wasn't entirely sure what to do about what was happening. Hermione caught his eye and smiled a little wetly, a small tear appearing in her eyes as well.

"Happy tears" She explained quietly, getting a vigorous nod from the girl attached to her.

Harry had virtually no experience with how to deal with tears of any sort, so he defaulted back to his new way of dealing with them he'd been learning since the end of third year and leaned forward to wrap Luna in a hug. Behind him Ron propped his chin up on one hand with his elbow resting on the arm of the couch and watched Harry engulf both girls and, due to his head being between there's completely miss them both turning vibrant red and smiling like they'd won a lottery. The ginger young man shook his head in exasperation at his best mates cluelessness and stood up, pocketing his wand and preparing to head to the door.

"We've got 2 hours till curfew, I'm gonna go see if I can hunt down a decent location" He said bemusedly, getting a tiny glare from both girls for prompting Harry to release them and stand back up to join Ron.

"I'll go see Flitwick" Harry agreed, "You should stay here again tonight Luna, You and Hermione can go and collect your things tomorrow with the cloak when there's more time"

"Thank you, all of you" She said simply, grinning like the loon some people called her.

\----------

Once they were gone through the portrait hole and Luna was sure they weren't coming back suddenly she tilted her head up to meet Hermione's warm brown eyes guiltily. She really didn't want to tell her best friend this, considering she had a pretty good idea about how she felt about Harry, but she wasn't going to unlearn the lesson about honesty she'd just learn this morning and risk her friendship.

"This morning, after Harry scared off those girls" Luna started nervously, "We had a small argument, I didn't want help dealing with them and he told me some stuff"

Hermione nodded curiously, "Dursley stuff?" She guessed, imagining what Harry might have told Luna to get her to talk to him.

"Yeah, he gave me a hug while he was explaining, I think to keep me from running away" She admitted sheepishly,

A strange gleam Luna didn't recognise lit up in Hermione's eyes and she smiled happily, "That and he just really likes hugging you" She agreed.

"M-maybe" Luna admitted reluctantly, turning her eyes to her hands which were fiddling with a button on her Gryffindor/Ravenclaw robe. "But while we were talking, he cupped my cheeks and...and I think he might have been about to..."

Hermione gasped quietly, and judging by the way Luna almost flinched away from her she knew that her friend had taken that completely the wrong way.

"I'm sorry!" She exclaimed, almost jerking away but being held firmly by the larger girls arms around her. "I know you like him, but he was so close and he was leaning in and then I was leaning in and-"

A soft hand slid around her face to cup her cheek and drew her back around to meet Hermione's eyes, dreading the heartbroken look she knew she'd be getting from her. Instead of hurt and confusion like she'd been expecting Hermione looked like christmas had come early and was smiling at her like she'd been the one to bring that early christmas personally.

"Hermione?"

"That is fantastic news" Hermione said breathlessly, finally the first step in her plan, Harry making any kind of move on either of them had finally happened.

"W-What?" Luna asked, looking as if she wasn't sure if she should try and call for a healer or not.

"Did you actually get to kiss him?" Hermione replied excitedly, "What was it like?"

"I...no we got interrupted?" Luna explained, "Colin Creevey arrived and dragged Harry off for that wand weighing thing"

Hermione frowned slightly and snapped her fingers, "We'll have to make sure to use locking charms next time, Harry's luck really is extraordinarily bad sometimes"

"Next time!?" Luna all but yelled, before glancing around sharply and lowering her voice "I thought, I thought you liked Harry!"

"I do!" Hermione agreed happily, "But I also knew that you liked him, you're my best friend Luna of course I'm happy the boy you liked almost kissed you!"

Hermione took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her smile taking on a far more nervous bent to it, trying to ignore the disbelieving look Luna was giving her and trying to stick to her plan.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure even though you like Harry too, but if I told you he'd almost kissed me you'd be happy for me right?" She asked casually, trying to keep her nerves under wraps.

This was the moment she'd been waiting and hoping for, it would have been easier if Harry had made a move on her first so she could just observe her friends feelings but she trusted Luna not to lie to her blatantly if she asked her a question. Luna looked a little shocked at the question and turned to face the fire beside them thoughtfully, staring into the flickering flames for what felt like an eternity before Hermione spoke up again.

"Just picture something for me okay, and tell me what you're feeling" She asked, turning so she was facing the fire to their side as well and adjusting her grip so her arms were wrapped around Luna's stomach instead. "Please?"

She got a very conflicted look back, Luna still looking like she wasn't quite sure what to say to her friends question without hurting her feelings, which spoke for itself.

"Okay so we've set up Harry's tent and you're coming back from dinner and you step through that little entrance into the living room, can you picture it?"

Luna nodded carefully, closing her eyes to fully immerse herself in the image.

"Harry is on the couch facing the door with me, we're kissing" Hermione murmured, squeezing the younger girl reassuringly. "What are you feeling"

"Jealous" Luna admittedly reluctantly, "I want to leave, to stop seeing it"

Hermione nodded into her hair, taking a deep breath and continuing on, "So you start to walk past us to your room, Harry and I spot you and stop kissing, we both look so happy to see you, remember the look on Harry's face at the Quidditch cup?"

"Yes" Luna said quietly.

"And how happy I looked when you said you were glad we were friends over the summer?"

"Yes" Luna agreed, sounding more and more self loathing by the minute and Hermione realized she was accidentally making the girl feel bad about being jealous.

"Harry stands up and walks over to you"

"I step back" Luna says immediately, completely immersed in the image Hermione is weaving for her.

"No" Hermione whispered lowly, "You step forward into his arms, he cups your cheek and kisses you too"

Luna drew a sharp breath and Hermione squeezed her gently to give her something grounding and physical to match her imagination, holding the girl tightly against her front with one leg curled up under her and her back against the couch's armrest.

"I'm happy, but confused and worried" Luna admitted lowly, "What's happening?"

Hermione continued quietly, her lips almost touching Luna's ear, "He steps to the side and I'm behind him, I look so happy you think I might burst"

"I-" Luna swallowed heavily, "I'm happy?"

"I step forward to take Harry's place" Hermione said, unable to keep the nervousness out of her voice. "And I kiss you too"

Luna's breath hitched and her eyes flew open, she spun as best as she was able to while on a couch and being held by someone as tightly as Hermione was. Behind her with a look like someone who was hoping for a miracle but really didn't expect to get one Hermione met her eyes apprehensively .

"You kiss me?" Luna repeated slowly, like she wasn't sure what to make of the words.

Hermione nodded slowly, "Yeah, Harry and me, Harry and you and...me and you"

Luna watched her for what felt like an eternity, carefully examine every inch of her face and staring into her eyes looking for some trace of dishonesty or attempt to mislead her.

"I haven't ever thought of-" Luna started, but was interrupted swiftly.

"I know" Hermione admitted, "And if you don't, or you can't that's completely okay...but at the very least, with Harry..."

Luna settled back against the backrest of the couch, but didn't try to disengage Hermione's arm from around her waist which she hoped was a positive sign.

"You're my best friend, and even if I didn't have-, if I didn't like you the way I do, I think I'd still want it this way." Hermione explained, "As soon as I saw the look on your face on the train home last year when he grabbed your hand I knew you felt the same way about him I did. Then you two hit it off so well I was honestly a little jealous about how easily you two seemed to exchange letters, while I had to spend so much time getting mine just right."

"Aren't you jealous?" Luna burst out, "Doesn't the idea of me with him make you angry, or, or anything?"

Hermione shook her head gently, "No. Maybe that makes me weird but seeing you two interact is one of the best parts of my day" she admitted, "Honestly some days if you gave me the option I'd just sit and watch you two interact all day, it's like basking in a warm sunbeam with my favorite book for me"

Luna was shaking her head and looking at her older friend in wonderment, "I...I don't know If I could do that?" Luna admitted reluctantly, "I like watching you two together too, you both bounce off each other so well and it's fun to see him be the bigger one than you like you are with me, but if he was my boyfriend I-" she shook her head. "And that's not even mentioning the other thing, I mean, I won't say I don't think you're pretty, and I really like our hugs but I've just never really thought about...that"

Hermione smiled reassuringly at her, "That's okay, really, if we're only ever best friends who cuddle sometime I swear I'll be happy with that, ecstatic even" Hermione said encouragingly, "It's just, if Harry finally expressed some interest in one of us I wanted to get this out in the open before anything happened is all"

Luna sighed quietly and stared at her hands for a moment before nodding firmly, "Okay" She said, "I'm not sure, and I don't know if I can do it and I can't promise anything" Luna clarified, "But I'll try" she smiled hopefully, "If it helps, I really really like the idea?"

Hermione giggled happily, the start of her plans finally having an opening taking one of the weights she'd been worrying about since the school year had started off her shoulders.

"The fact that you want to try is more than I could have hoped for" Hermione reassured her, "And if it doesn't work out, I still don't want to lose either of my best friends, so we're going to need to be truly honest with each other about...well everything" Hermione reached into her pocket with her free hand and pulled out the black diary she'd been keeping, unlocking it with a small burst of magic. "And in the spirit of honesty..."

"Your runes diary?" Luna asked perplexedly

"Not entirely"

The Day of the First Task

The week following Luna's removal from Ravenclaw's dorms was, for Harry at least, completely and utterly exhausting on every level. He told Flitwick what they were doing, and to the man's credit he had offered several other solutions that they hadn't thought of. Including simply going undercover as Luna himself under an illusion to see what was going on, but Harry had managed to talk him out of it. The simple fact was that no matter who they caught or punished there was just no realistic to stop it entirely, even if they got the people directly involved and punished them. Flitwick had explained it to him as the largest problem educators faced when they were outnumbered, if enough students were involved in something than short expelling them you couldn't stop them. Even then if it was as widespread as Luna had said it was that would just result in retaliation and then you just started down a bad path for everyone. Instead he had, reluctantly, offered his blessing to Luna's temporary removal from the dorms with the assurance that she would still be a Ravenclaw student and attend her classes as normal. Harry suspected that his Master had agreed to the unusual case because he knew exactly what the escalation would look like if the punishments didn't take.

His training had been turned from a morning and evening event into a whole day affair that had him waking up at the crack of dawn and usually not making it into the dorm showers until after everyone else had long gone to bed. Aside from occasionally seeing them in the halls and in passing in the Hospital Wing when he took things too far he hadn't actually spoken to any of his friends for longer than a few minutes in nearly a week. The only thing he knew for sure was that Luna and Hermione had set up in an empty classroom on the same floor as Gryffindor and that so far no one had made a fuss. It had been worth the isolation in the end though, he had gotten a few basic curses down to the point he felt he could cast them under pressure. On top of that he had taken a few utility charms and at least learned how to cast them in a basic sense to give himself a bit more versatility in the coming task.

On top of that, the incredibly gaudy woman he'd been so wary of at the weighing of the wands had turned out to be exactly as slimy as she'd looked and he was grateful Dumbledore had cut off her chance at an interview so quickly. The article had appeared two days after the event, but he hadn't had a chance to see it or speak to anyone who would care to tell him about it until last night when he'd finally taken a break from his training. The moment he'd dropped onto the couch in the common room for the first time in over a week Ginny had dumped the paper in his lap and given him a shit eating grin. The psychotic woman had apparently spent more than just those few hours around the castle and had decided he was interesting enough to devote almost the entire article to. There was barely any mention of the other two champions at all, and it went at great length to talk about his 'impeccable manners befitting his station' and 'charming conversation'. It had nearly driven him to bed early in disgust, thankfully Ron had turned up in time to stop him and explain what was going on.

Flashback

"She's like a reporter assassin mate" Ron explained, "Apparently she goes around just talking absolute nonsense, but because she gets it right every now and then people just lap it all up"

"This makes me sound like a ruddy Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed back, slapping the paper for emphasis. "I shook her hand and said it was nice to meet her for Merlin's sake, how does that equal" He glanced over the article again, "'The well practised manners of a true scion of the Potter line', whatever that means!"

"Could have been worse" Neville spoke up from across from them, "Gran says she usually goes after people really badly if they annoy her, and Ron's right but she actually get's it right way more often than not. People have been trying to figure out how she knows some of the stuff she does for years"

Ginny jumped up to seat on the back of the couch, "Really, the rich twit stuff is the bit that's bothering you about all that?" She asked casually, grinning widely when he turned red.

"The other part is so ridiculous I'm not even acknowledging it" Harry held his head high in spite of the round of laughter that brought.

"Oh I dunno" Neville said, working up a bit of courage. "You two did leave the great hall together and never came back..."

"Neville!" Harry exclaimed, giving the slightly chubby boy an aggrieved look.

Meanwhile Ron had all but spit his drink over the table and was laughing and choking in equal measure while he slapped the table in laughter.

"So you're sure there's nothing going on with you and Fleur then?" Ginny asked innocently, "Not interested in the tall, statuesque perfect types?"

"First of all' Harry explained exasperatedly pointing at neville with his fork, "I had to tell her and Viktor something about the tournament, and afterwards we all went back to our training"

"Sure" Neville said nonchalantly, "Physical training?"

Harry's head hit his hands at the same time both Weasley's cracked up again along with the Quidditch team that had circled around them as usual when they set up in the common room.

"Secondly!" Harry's hand came up with two fingers but his head remained in one hand. "Not really no" He lifted his head and smiled wryly at everyone around him, giving Neville a friendly wink when the perpetually nervous boy glanced at him anxiously.

"So if the perfect french girl isn't your type who is?" Angelina called out jokingly from her potion in an armchair near them.

Harry rolled his eyes took a bite of his meal, very carefully not looking at the Hermione and Luna pair sitting across from him on another couch and giving him equally innocent looks.

"Professor McGonagall" he said snarkily, "I just love a woman with authority ya know Angie"

To her credit Angelina only laughed for a few moments before snarking back, "Is that why you keep calling me 'captain' squirt?" She shoved Fred back out of the way so she could dramatically throw her dreads back and wink at him.

"Sorry luv, you just haven't got that stern edge that does it for me" Harry grinned, feeling the weight of his week falling off him with his friends and housemates around him.

The future Quidditch captain stood suddenly and walked the few places down to drop between Luna and Hermione with a cocky grin, ignoring the squawk of outrage from Hermione and the annoyed look from Luna.

"Maybe but I reckon I can still put you in your place" She hinted outrageously, pulling a small ooooo from the Gryffindors.

"Angie you're only above me on the pitch" Harry smirked, "No brooms here"

"Oh you little smartarse" She laughed and gave him an approving look. "You're lucky we haven't got the Quidditch cup on or I'd have you running sprints...or some other kind of cardio..."

Neville choked on his drink near them and drew a bit of attention before Ginny jumped off the back of the couch and gave him a good thump on the back.

"Thanks" He croaked out, getting a grin from the smaller redhead.

"Anytime Nev" She assured, before returning to her perch over the central seating area.

"How bold!" Harry shot back, "I thought you liked your men older than you Angie, I'm not really your type am I?"

"It's late!" Hermione suddenly yelled from beside Angelina, "You have the task tomorrow, you should sleep!"

Harry gave her a confused look, but did reluctantly look a the clock over the fire and did a double take.

"You're right" He agreed reluctantly, standing and stretching casually. "Don't have too big of a night you lot, you'll need your rest to celebrate me surviving this stupid thing tomorrow night!"

Flashback End

That little taste of normality had managed to even out a large portion of the stress he'd felt building up and was the reason he was just walking down to the tent with a steady gait instead of rushing down so he could get this over with as soon as possible. As he approached the small stadium that had been thrown together to hold this event he felt a slither of fear work it's way into his stomach and settle itself in. He welcomed it like an old friend that it was, he'd learnt very early that fear was good for you, it made you faster, stronger, sharper and if you kept a handle on it it would keep you alive. He came up to the flap of the tent the champions were expected to wait in and deep a deep breath, he'd gotten his good lucks and his hugs at breakfast and now it was just him.

The tent was, for the first time Harry had ever seen, actually just a tent pitched over the grass. Inside Fleur was sitting on a stool in the corner with a sickly pallor to her skin and was holding her wand in front of her, lighting it and extinguishing it repeatedly like some sort of meditation. Viktor had taken up position near the exit on the far side and looked even more surly than usual, though Harry had discovered recently that was really just how the young man's face rested. Both champions were wearing vastly different clothing, with Viktor clad in what appeared to be some sort of duelling robe made of a tick black material Harry didn't recognise. Fleur on the other hand had on that appeared to be an extremely impractically large flowy dress with what looked like bells woven into it. Waiting impatiently in the middle was Ludo Bagman holding a burlap sack and almost bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Harry!" said Bagman happily, "We're all here, excellent, excellent"

The slightly overweight man looked like he was about to head to a press event, clad in his old wasp uniform and looking for all the world like he was preparing for a great night out.

"Good, now allow me to explain the task as best I can, once the audience is finished assembling you each will pull a single model of what you'll be going up against from!" He help up the burlap sack, "This bag! Now whatever you draw will be yours to face on the field, all with the target of taking from it, A Golden Egg!"

That had sealed it in Harry's mind, this man was a completely undefendable moron, anyone else with half a brain cell wouldn't be so gloriously happy about sending 3 teenagers to steal gold from a dragon. Harry glanced at his fellows and noted they had barely looked up at his instruction, both keeping their own council and all but ignoring the man outside of a perfunctory nod. Harry moved over to a free pillar of the tent and leant against it as casually as he could manage, staring absently into the air and ignoring the sound of hundreds of students passing by the tent. In what felt like only a few second but what must have been at least a half an hour Bagman was holding the sack in front of Fleur and smiling in what he probably thought was a roguish way at the part Veela.

She reached in and with shaking hands drew out a tiny perfect model of a Chinese Fireball and gave a sigh of relief at her draw, not that he could blame her considering the other two options. Krum went next and single dropped one arm into the sack and yanked out the first thing he touched and just as Harry had predicted it was the Swedish Short-Snout. Harry didn't even look at what he'd pulled from the bag, already knowing that the deadliest Dragon of the three was his to fight, to steal from without getting killed.

"There we go!" said Bagman, "Each of you has drawn the Dragon you'll have to face today, in the order that is numbered around their necks which means that Mr. Krum will be first, just head on through the flaps there when you hear the whistle. Now Harry, could I borrow you for a moment?"

Harry stared down the odd man for a long moment before deciding to be polite, "I'm sorry Mr Bagman but I really need to focus, don't want to be distracted"

"Ah" The man started slightly in surprise, "Quite alright, quite alright we can talk after the task. It'll be about 10 minutes so prepare yourselves!"

After he'd left Harry watched his fellow competitors closely, noting that for as well as they were hiding it both we obviously completely terrified about what was about to happen next. He decided fairly quickly to leave them to their own meditations, after all between being an international Quidditch star and super model beautiful they both must be used to dealing with stress. When the whistle finally came and Viktor stood from his slouch against the wall Harry perked up slightly and gave him a genuine grin.

"More than just a Seeker?" Harry asked rhetorically.

Viktor gave him a savage grin and straightened further, marching out of the tent with his his head held high.

Bagmans commentary being audible within the tent was perhaps the worst oversight, or intentionally sadistic choice Harry could imagine right now.

"-Krum! Oh he's going on the offensive already" Bagman yelled, his voice almost drown out by the crowds cheering and hollering. "He's advancing already, but there's the signature blue flame, it's said it can turn bone to ash in seconds ladies and gentleman and that was a very near miss!"

It was almost like a Quidditch announcer, except instead of narrating a sport for entertainment the entire population of Hogwarts was cheering on a 17 year old trying not to die against a Dragon.

"He's driving it back!" Bagman roared suddenly, "An aggressive and impressive set of curses aimed at the Short-Snouts eyes seem to have made it panicky and it's trying to break the chains so it can fly away! Ohhhh, that's a few eggs broken in it's panicking, that'll cost him some points there but- He's got it!"

Applause as loud as thunder echoed through the tent and Harry could swear his ears were ringing from the sound of it all at once. Across from him Fleur seemed to be getting herself under a firmer control, her hands no longer bunched in the dresses material and her complexion starting to become more normal. It took nearly another 10 minutes but finally the sharp whistle rang out again and the part Veela girl stood sharply and headed for the exit without a word.

Harry chose to remain silent this time given she was clearly just getting into a sort of mental zone and didn't need him knocking her out of it, outside the moment she exited Bagman started up again.

"After that incredible performance on the part of our Durmstrang competition let's see see what Beauxbatons has to offer! Miss Delacour here dressed in what seems to be rather impractical clothing, but I have it on good authority that-"

Suddenly Fleur's voice rose up over Bagmans and the crowds, silencing them all as she, to Harry's confusion, began to sing. It was a gentle sounding song in a language Harry recognised as french but couldn't understand the meaning of most of the words. Mixed amongst the remarkably beautiful singing voice the bells inset into her dress were tinkling along in an almost hypnotic pattern.

"The dress is a magical item Veela use to enhance the use of their particular charm magic" Bagmans voice was much quiet, but with the entire stadium silent it still was easily heard. "She chose to come in without even her wand in exchange for having this item be available, and it's paying off! The Dragon is starting to drift off, a few more moments and it might just- There it goes!"

Harry heard the soft hypnotic singing and tinkling slowly get further away and he realised that Fleur must be having to dance her way towards the Dragon in order to keep it charmed. Finally after several long minutes Bagmans voice echoed out again into the tense silence.

"There we have it ladies and gentleman, with an expert application of non-traditional magic Fleur Delacour collects her egg almost as fast as Viktor Krum but with none of the egg damage!"

Based on the slightly less enthusiastic applause either people wanted something more exciting or they were all still slightly sleepy from the charm song like Harry was. The whistle to call him out came far too quickly after that, but the bolt of surprise that hit him at least had the benefit of shaking off the last of the false calmness the song had instilled. The fear about what exactly he was about to be doing returned with a vengeance, his body folding with adrenaline and his heart starting to beat harder in his chest.

The first step onto the grounds was met with a wall of sound so loud he thought it might knock him on his ass, barring the green Slytherin section the rest of the school seemed to be trying to outdo each other in their vocal support. Across the rocky feld they'd put in to provide cover and distance for the approach a Hungarian Horntail was staring savagely at him. The beast was even more deadly looking than the photos made it out to be, with sulphurous yellow eyes and fangs as long as his forearm bared while she crouched protectively over her clutch, with the golden egg front and centre. It's spike tipped tail whipped behind it like an angry cats, gouging chunks of earth and stone from the surroundings with equal ease.

Harry's wand dropped into his hand and he raised it to point at the Dragon trepidatiously, "Accio Golden Egg" He intoned carefully, not surprised when there wasn't so much as a twitch.

Outside the magical barrier over the stadium seats a wave of laughter started in the Slytherin section and echoed through a few more of the stand sections before being crushed by a wall of support from Gryffindor.

Harry sighed and took a moment to stretch lightly, knowing his only chance with the Horntail would be expiring very soon if he didn't get started. He couldn't beat it in endurance, or firepower or speed, so he'd have to beat it with surprise instead.

"From his deeds of daring, till that day most momentous" He recited to himself, amused by the synchronicity, "When he fate-driven fared to fight with the Dragon"

He took a deep breath and when everyone in the crowd seemed convinced he was frozen in fear he lurched forward in a straight sprint towards the nest. The Horntail roared a reply to his charge and blew a great stream of scorching hot fire straight down the centreline towards him. A dozen screams rang out as it seemed to engulf the boy mid step, and even the Dragon was halfway to laying back down seemingly satisfied. Instead Harry burst through the back of the short blast with a glittering dome of magic leading his charge. The shield shattered the instant he was beyond the flames but that still put him much closer than the Horntail expected him to be and it reacted with all the violence of the deadliest breed could be expected.

A horrific screech of outrage left the beasts maw and it reared back to blow another, much longer stream of devastating flame onto the tiny Human who dared survive it's first blast.

"Aguamenti!" Harry cried, a powerful blast of water leaving his wand tip like a firehose and taking the Horntail full in the mouth.

It only bought him a few more seconds, but that was enough to put Harry close enough that it couldn't breath fire on him unless it wanted to risk its own eggs and treasure. Instead much like he'd been warned the spiked tail whipped around almost faster than he could see and swung in from the right, aiming to take him in the chest. Harry pointed his wand desperately to the right and vibrant Protego appeared with no thought or intent, as powerful as what he'd put up to take 2 dozen stunners. The first hit from the Dragon's tail shattered it, although to the shields credit the reflected force of it breaking knocked the Horntail back half a step. A second swing came in just as fast from the left and Harry had to desperately split his focus from trying to get his hands on the egg to stopping the tail again. This dance continued on for nearly a minute, Harry's shields slowly getting more and more desperate and the Horntail slowly being forced back off it's eggs by the force of the shields shattering. In the crowd there was almost complete silence, and even Bagman seemed to not quite know what to say about the sight in front of him

"Harry Potter's uh, charge at the dragon has gotten him closer to his prize" The announcer attempted, "But now he seems to be stuck in a..a fencing match of sorts with the Horntail and he's stuck on the defensive!"

Finally Harry was able to inch close enough that if he had a single second of freedom he could reach down to scoop up the Golden egg, which the Dragon seemed to have realised as well, because it had decided to throw caution to the wind. It reared back with it's massive wings out and swept them forward with as much force as it could manage, the gust lifting it off the ground but also throwing Harry away from it's eggs. Luckily in the moment it had taken to rear Harry had darted forwards and gotten his hand around his prize and the egg was safely nestled in the crook of his free arm. He went airborne fro a moment from the force of the wing beat, but managed to roll to his feet smoothly. He turned to sprint back to the entrance, a shield already up behind him to absorb the inevitable retaliation.

"He has it!" The crowd cheered along with Bagman, "After an incredible use of defensive magic Harry is on his way back out of the-"

The sounds of shearing metal cut him off before the crowd could even start cheering, Harry would have liked to have said he ignored it, that he did the smart thing and kept running for the exit. Instead he looked over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of the Horntail's chain that held it tethered to the ground shattering into a thousand useless pieces.

"The Dragon is loose!" Bagman yelled, "Don't worry though the shield on the stadium is a dome, it won't be going anywhere!"

Unfortunately the Dragon had other ideas and with a few mighty flaps it easily passed Harry's sprint for the exit and landed directly in his way, blocking the only exit to the arena. In the crowd the generally jubilant celebrations had faded to a shocked silence, except for the sound of a few people screaming at the judges to let him out of the arena before it killed him.

"We can't assist until he's at the exit folks or it will count as interfering!" Bagman announced with a horrified look on his face.

An echoing growl filled the horrified silence of the arena after that announcement and the crowd watched in terror as the Dragon advanced slowly, seeming to savor its new freedom. Harry felt another bolt of fear, this one far more potent than the last fill his veins with buzzing energy and he had to fight to keep himself from hyperventilating. The ground shook under his feet as the Dragon crawled closer, looking for all the world like it had a sickening grin on it's huge fanged maw, the sight of that fake smile getting closer finally knocked Harry out of his stupor. It struck him suddenly that this was no longer a part of the tournament, the chain breaking on his attempt when it must have been tested a thousand times? That wasn't a coincidence, being entered could have been a coincidence, getting the Horntail could have been happenstance but this was so blatantly enemy action Harry almost wanted to look around for the mustache twirling villain who did it.

Time seemed to slow for Harry as the Dragon approached, his own death crawling towards him without a care like, he was just supposed to sit here and let it eat him, like he was the victim in this arena. Another vicious growl echoed through the arena, only this one wasn't coming from the Dragon, instead Harry stepped towards the great beast with his wand up and a ferocious death stare on his face. The silence of the arena was deafening, even Bagman's enthusiastic announcing silent in the face of what seemed to be the execution of a boy by Dragon. He had been here before though, this moment had repeated itself for him so many times since he'd become a wizard that it was almost like a dance he knew the steps to. When this had happened before he'd run, even when he'd fought he had done so by running and hiding or with petty distractions. Those were the steps he knew, the ones he'd practiced. Here and now though, with a Dragon's teeth coming closer and the monster who sicked it on him no doubt watching from the crowd? He was tired of running.

"If you want me dead!" Harry snarled, stepping forward to match it's approach "Than you'll need to do better than THIS!"

"TRANSFIGO!"

A splinter of white light left his wand faster than the human eye could track and slammed into the Horntail's left eye, popping the large orb in a splatter of gore. The Dragon roared in agony and charged, white viscera pouring from the now empty hole in that was it's left eye socket, Harry stepped forward as it charged, throwing a shield up just in time to catch a wicked spiked tail. The shield shook violently, but for the first time didn't shatter, holding steady with a sound a hammer striking iron. A dozen more lightning fast strikes with the spike on the end of its tail met a dozen equally matched shields until Harry finally found the angle that the Dragon was attacking from. On the next overhead swing Harry allowed the shield to fade a fraction of a second before it would have struck and threw himself to the side, rolling and coming to his feet. The Horntail's eponymous tail had hit the ground with such force it had nailed itself into the dirt and was desperately trying to rip it out.

Harry had no intention of allowing that, he whipped his wand from left to right violently and then performed a quick corkscrew ending with the tip pointed at the last joint connecting the tail to the club on the end of it.

"EXCISUS"

The merciless arc of violet light left his wand and connected with the tail faster than Harry could blink, connecting with the last section before the tails ridged bone structure where the scales were at their weakest and most flexible. The force of the cutting curse and the carved a deep furrow through the thinner scales around the tip of the tail and connected with the joint connecting the tip to the rest of the tail with a sickening crack. The Horntail reared back and away from the sudden pain on instinct, with the heavy spiked head buried in the rock and a mangled cut that went through half the meat and cracked the bone the result was inevitable. A sickening squelching noise rang out and the Dragon's violent retreat from the pain it was in ripped the end of its tail off in a shower of gore. The once dangerous looking club of hardened bone was left buried in the earth and instead a ragged circle of ruined flesh surrounding a white tip of bone were all that was left. The agonised screech it let out would have, under any other circumstances, made Harry pause in sympathy, unfortunately he knew that he had no time for such sentiment right now.

"TRANSFIGO!"

A second splinter of white light left his wand and slammed into the side screeching beast's head, missing anything vital due to it's thrashing but carving a deep scar into the scales under its jaw. That got it's attention again and without moving it turned it's head vaguely in his direction and let out a stream of fire in a sweeping motion, covering the entire area in white hot flame. Unable to dodge in time Harry threw a domed shield up over himself to buy a few seconds and cast a spell he hadn't thought he'd have to use against the Horntail.

A quick square with his wand and a muttered "Subfodio" dug a trench into the earth beneath him and he dropped in without pausing, landing roughly on his back. Above him his shield was starting to splinter and with not much to do but cast and hope he aimed his wand up, praying he could hold.

"AGUAMENTI!"

The jet of water that came out of the tip of his wand was less a firehose this time and more a waterfall directed up into the barely holding shield. The instant the blast of water pressure hit the inside of the shield it shattered into motes of light and the fire rushed into the path of least resistance. Harry screwed his eyes shut and closed his mouth tightly, keeping the stream of water up even as it turned to boiling hot steam all around him. This went on for what felt like eternity, the heat getting steadily more and more intense while around him puddles of nearly boiling water formed, turned to steam and formed again. Finally the heat started to fade and instead the cool jet of his water started to fill the trench he'd formed and he stopped. Feeling but unable to see the brutal burns the steam had left running from his fingertips to the elbow joint of his right arm through the slowly settling mist his spell had left.

"Argh!" He couldn't help but moan in agony as he stood, his entire body covered in lesser, but still painful burns.

Suddenly the Horntail was above his trench, roaring in fury and thrusting it's head forward, malevolent 10 inch razor sharp fangs open and ready to bite him in half at the waist. With no time think Harry did what came naturally and stepped into the bite, coming up under the beasts chest and out of range of its teeth, but not out of range of it's claws. A four clawed hand wrapped around his chest while his eyes were still on the retreating jaw and squeezed him so hard he thought he'd black out, the claws on the end of the Dragon's fingers stabbing into and nearly through the left side of Harry's torso.

"ARRRGGHHH!" He screamed, the four evenly spaced punctures leaving inch thick holes almost all the way through his body starting at his collarbone and stopping just above his pelvis.

With a brutal squeeze Harry felt his ribs crack and his body being pulled out from under the Dragon's bulk while it sat back on its haunches, raising him up so it could take a bite out of him. He could barely see, blackness creeping in from the edges of his vision but the malevolent hate in its eyes was obvious, he had more than scarred the beast, he'd outright crippled it, and it wanted to hurt him back. Harry fought for consciousness while he was slowly raised up to it's maw, a flicker of defiance still burning in his broken and burned body. He watched carefully until he knew the creature was sure of it's victory and it opened it's jaw wide to bite his head off, he moved before it could, thrusting his badly burned arm up into its mouth wand first.

"CONFRINGO!" He roared, feeling his fingers break from the backblast of the spell shattered his wand into splinters in his hand.

Above him the obliterated remains of the Dragon's brain blew out of it's mouth and nose in a waterfall of vibrant pink and red gore that covered him from head to toe. Unfortunately with no brain to support it every muscle it had spasmed, including the ones in its hands resulting in it violently releasing Harry a half a dozen feet off the ground. He hit the thankfully muddy ground with a wet slap and a moment of white agony that drew an agonised scream from him, he felt more than saw the dragon hit the ground next to him in a heap.

"-ry!"

"-arry!"

"HARRY!"

He jerked back to his senses and struggled to sit up with 4 holes in his left flank and violently aching burns all over his body but failed, badly, barely managing to roll onto his less injured side.

"Harry you have to leave under your own power!" A voice he vaguely recognise was screaming at him, although he couldn't be sure because his head was ringing quite badly.

He got one knee under him and almost vomited, the familiar feeling of a concussion making itself known on top of the rest of his injuries. He tried to use his free arm to push himself to his feet but was surprised when he found it wouldn't respond to his commands. A weary glance revealed why, he still had the Golden egg tucked into the crook of his left elbow, and apparently even his subconscious wouldn't let it go.

"Harry, please" A different voice this time, higher, sweeter, was someone asking him for something?

"Harry you have to start moving!" The first voice called again, "If we come and get you you'll lose your magic, and it's the only thing keeping you alive right now!"

He groaned again and tried to stand, getting one leg under him shakily, then a second, and finally with scream he was on his feet. He could see, sort of, the exit he was supposed to be going towards, there were people there still screaming at him. Didn't they know he was tired? He was going to go and tell them off, he stumbled forward a few steps, leaving a trail of bright red blood in his wake.

"Come on Harry" A new voice he recognised as Hermione's was all but begging, he couldn't see her but she sounded like she'd been crying.

He sped up slightly, still not quite sure why he was in such a hurry, he caught a glimpse of his ravaged chest and giggled helplessly, right, he was probably dying.

"You can do it Harry, just keep moving" He heard Ron pleading with him, and he could almost make out his best mate's ginger hair just a few metres in front of him.

Barely two metres to go, even with his ridiculously blurred vision he could almost tell who was who, Ron with a tall white haired man front and centre, and Hermione's brunette blur off to one side with a small blonde blur next to her. A stone shifted under his feet and he stumbled, dropping to one knee again and letting out a long groan of suffering,

He could almost reach them, he just needed to get up one more time and take two more steps and he wasn't sure if he could. He felt drained, wringed out like a dishtowel used over and over until it was almost see through, not enough Harry Potter left to cover the holes.

"Harry" The first voice called again, and he realised with a jolt that it was Luna's.

Luna, Hermione and Ron were two steps away from him and unless he stood up and walked they were going to have to watch him die without being able to help. The idea of it flashed through his mind's eye and he surged back to his feet in response, the image of his friends agonised faces burnt into his retina and giving him one last surge of strength. He stumbled the last few steps with a complete lack of grace, finally making it to the invisible line in the sand he could feel but not quite see and collapsed into Ron's open arms, nearly unconscious.

"Don't worry mate" he heard Ron whisper as he felt himself being levitated and rushed away to somewhere, the ginger blur staying steadily beside him as he was moved. "I've got you"

\----------

Ron had never been as terrified in his life as he was right now, sprinting beside a shockingly agile Albus Dumbledore into the castle with his best mate levitating beside him leaking what little of his blood he had left all over the halls of the castle. Madame Pomfrey had gone on ahead once it had become clear that Harry's injuries were going to need the Hospital wing, but he doubted even she suspected how bad they had gotten without killing him. Ron was yelling cleansing spells as they ran, doing his best to get as much extraneous filth as he could off his friend before they arrived to speed up the healers treatment. Meanwhile Dumbledore kept his levitation as smooth and steady as a feather mattress even while they sprinted up stairs two at a time.

By the time they crashed through the door Harry had been completely cleansed of Dragon viscera and mud but was still soaked in the blood that had leaked out of him while they'd been moving. Dumbledore placed him carefully onto a bed and quick stepped out of the way as Madame Pomfrey appeared next to the bed with a tray of potions, she lifted a blood replenisher and uncorked it, using a flick of her wrist to get it in his mouth and massaged his throat so he'd swallow it. Nearly instantly his blood flow pickup and she discarded the first, plucking a blood coagulation potion and forcing him to drink just as efficiently. While Ron watched and carefully performed his simple purifying spell again, keeping the area of damage clean and unobstructed Madam Pomfrey started to work. A quick swipe of her wand vanished every stitch of Harry's clothing and Ron fought the urge to either burst into tears or vomit.

His entire body was covered in swelling blistered flesh and Ron realised somewhere in the back of his mind that this was what second degree scalding looked like. His torso was covered in a disturbing mix of those burns and mottled bruising where he knew broken ribs were sitting under the surface. On the top left side of Harry's torso were 4 evenly spaced punctures, each as wide of two of Ron's fingers pushed together and all 4 of them steadily leaking dark red blood onto the Hospital wing floor. Finally there was his right arm and that was perhaps the most damaged part of all, everything from the elbow to the hand looking like it had been stuck in pot of boiling water for half an hour. His hand was mangled almost beyond recognition, large slivers of broken wand sticking out between obviously broken fingers all covered by a vicious third degree burn made for a truly horrific sight.

Ron took all of this in in a few seconds, letting all of the details he could see filter in and mesh with the constant training he'd been doing since the start of the year, then he pushed the fact that this was his best mate, his brother, out of his mind and started to work.

"Ostende mihi faciem tuan dolore" He intoned slowly, running his wand from the top of the patient's body to the tips of his toes.

Above Harry's body a steady image of his body made up of pulsing light appeared facing down mirroring the boy's body, most of it made up of yellow or orange light, with 4 red marks on the torso and a large red glow around his right arm.

Ron studied the glowing representation carefully while across from him Madame Pomfrey was murmuring under her breath and swirling her wand in a steadily tightening corkscrew around one of the punctures. While she was working on that Ron watched the blood flowing out carefully, grabbing a blood replenisher in one hand and pouring a burn cream out over the patients legs with the other. The empty burn cream bottle dropped onto the tray with a clang and without taking his eyes off the weeping chest wounds Ron gently rubbed the healing cream into Harry's feet and lower legs. Finally after another blood replenisher and nearly an hour of careful work the first of the punctures was healed and closed, although a shiny sickle sized scar remained. While Madam Pomfrey had been carefully healing organ damage and closing the more serious wound Ron had kept the patient topped up on blood and had carefully rubbed burn cream onto the entirety of his exposed body.

"Good" Madam Pomfrey declared, turning her wand on the second hole, "remove the wand shards and start to set his fingers, there'll be scars but if we're fast enough he should maintain full function. I'll take care of blood management now."

Ron nodded firmly and carefully positioned his wand at the tip of a shard of wood jabbed into the patients palm, poking through both sides and touched the end of it gently with his wand tip.

"Excerptem"

He pulled his wand back slowly, the piece of Harry's, the patients wand, slowly followed until the shard was fully removed and no trace of splinters remained inside the small hole left in the centre of his palm. Slowly and carefully he pulled each shard one by one out of his hand and forearm watching the image above him as he worked, slowly the bright red dimmed into more noticeable individual shards as he worked. He wasn't quite sure how long had passed when he finished, dumping the last wooden shard onto a metal tray already full of wood and blood. Looking up from his delicate work he saw that all but one of the brutal holes in the torso were shut, although none of them had failed to leave their mark. It was almost funny, normally it required dark magic to truly leave a scar on someone that magical healing couldn't erase with very few exceptions. Unluckily for his patient potently magical creatures like dragons and phoenixes were some of the creatures whose injuries couldn't simply be erased, the magical weight of the creatures existence lending a weight to the injury itself.

Ron shook his head and turned back to his work, placing his wand against the first of the many open wounds along the hand. "Purifico" he muttered tiredly, the entire hand cleaning itself of blood and external filth instantly. "Digitus emendo" He spoke firmly and jabbed his wand at the first finger, wincing slightly when it reset into position with a gag inducing crunch. Lastly he rested his wand tip on the open wounds along the now set finger and gave a quick little zigzag, whispering "Consuo" over each one and watching the open wound seal shut into thin white scars.

Three more hours of this passed before Ron was finally free to look up from his work, and he nearly jumped when he saw Madam Pomfrey standing right next to him watching intently as he worked. The four punctures on the patient's torso had all been closed successfully barring the four sickle sized scars and his entire body was already showing noticeable improvement on the burn damage. The arm he was working on in particular now no longer looked like it was second away from falling apart and seemed to match the rest of his body instead. A quick glance at the magical body of light above them showed that the entire body was now showing as a light yellow to a calming green with no more red to be seen. The hand that Ron had been working on looked slightly patchwork due to the sheer amount of scaring, with several large white crescents dominating the palm and back of the hand in particular.

"Good work" Pomfrey complimented, "wrap it and it should be healed in a day or so"

"Ferula" Ron muttered, watching the bandages carefully to ensure they didn't overly constrict or move his bones. "Any complications?" he asked gruffly.

"Nothing unfixable" Pomfrey sighed, conjuring a hospital gown to finally cover him up. "The burns were all easy thankfully, I feared the worst with Dragon Fire but it seems it was all water scalding thank Merlin. The punctures were another story, they were far enough across to miss his heart but they lacerated his liver, kidneys and intestines, I was able to put it all back together but he'll be extremely tender for a week or two and shouldn't touch alcohol or anything overly fatty or oily"

"Won't be a problem, his diet is strict and healthy" Ron confirmed,

"Good, he had a minor concussion but nothing life threatening" She grimaced, "His contacts were melted onto his eyes though, I managed to extract them and heal the damage but we'll be leaving his eyes bandaged with a potion soaked into them for at least 48 hours"

"Can we fix any of this" Ron asked quietly, staring a the new dozen of so scars that littered the man's arm and torso.

"No" The senior healer said simply, "Dragon claws and Phoenix feather infused wood both left magically charged injuries, maybe if it had only been one puncture, or just his hand we could have, but it took too long to fix the life threatening damage" She gave her exhausted protege a once over. "Now go lay down on a bed and I'll bring you something to eat, we've been at this since midday and it's almost dinner"

Ron shook his head and stumbled towards the sealed off door to the exit, "Not yet, gotta tell them first"

"You can't reveal a patient's status to anyone but family or designated next of kin Mr Weasley" She said frostily.

He gave her a weak smile over his shoulder, "I know, s'why I had Harry designate me, Hermione and Luna as his emergency contacts and next of kin, it should be all on file"

Madame Pomfrey smirked proudly, "Good, dot your I's and cross your T's or they'll bury you for it" Her smile faltered, "Are you sure you don't want me to tell them?"

"No ma'am" He shook his head, "has to be me"

The wave of exhaustion that hit him when he reached the large double door made him seriously reconsider asking his mentor to do this, but the sight of Hermione and Luna curled up on an obviously conjured armchair made him steel himself. He pushed the large door open, breaking the seal that made it inaccessible from the outside with a small chime that drew attention immediately. Both girls looked a mess, eyes red and puffy from crying but both poring over the black diary that Hermione carried everywhere with quills in hand.

"It'll work best if we weave it into a long coat, more coverage of the upper body and-"

Ron put as brave a face on as he could and cleared his throat, "The patient is stable and on the road to recovery" he started, ignoring the naked relief on both faces, followed by confusion at the stilted way he was speaking. "There will unfortunately be significant scarring around his right hand and wrist, along with four 2 inch circular scars along the left side of his torso. However we don't expect this to have any effect on his mobility, they will be, mostly, cosmetic in nature and aren't any threat to his life"

Hermione and Luna exchanged a concerned look and slowly got up from the comfy purple armchair Dumbledore had conjured for them before heading off to deal with the fallout of the task.

"If you wish I'll go through the full breakdown of his injuries, however as long as you're aware that he is in no immediate danger and will not face any long term debilitating injuries-"

"Ron" Hermione whispered hoarsely, her voice half gone from the hours of crying. "He's okay? Harry's okay?"

The tall young man smiled wanly and kept his gaze focused slightly above the girls heads, seemingly unable to look directly at them, "Yes, barring a few days more recovery and perhaps 3 to 4 weeks of careful diet he will be fi-"

The crash of two young woman connecting with his chest sent his exhausted body slumping against the door and ultimately onto the floor where he sat for a long moment, not quite comprehending that he was being hugged. There, sat on his arse on the floor of an open hallway with his two of his closest friends hugging him for all they were worth he took a shuddering breath. He desperately tried to reinforce the professional demeanor he'd been holding onto since he'd first seen Harry's mangled body, but the exhaustion, the comfort from his friends, it was finally too much. A broken sob echoed down the hall, not from the two girls who had already cried themselves out, but from the young man who had just painstakingly help pull his brother back from the brink. Two pairs of arms tightened around his middle and a barely audible thanks floated up from his chest area that made a renewed series of sobs break from his throat.

"He was-" Ron started, swallowing heavily and ignoring the tears streaming down his face, "I couldn't help much, I just rubbed burn salve on his skin and closed some cuts, I just-

Hermione reared back and for a hysterical moment he thought she was going to slap him.

"You helped save his life" She said fiercely, "and I won't hear otherwise from anyone, even you"

Ron put a hand over his eyes and tried to scrub away his tears angrily, "I should have been able to do more, if I was better, faster, maybe he wouldn't have a dozen new scars" He replied bitterly.

This time Luna jerked back like he'd shocked her and he dropped his hand loosely onto the floor next to him, the effort to do anything with it too much for the moment.

"Harry has never cared about scars" Luna started

"He might care about these" Ron interrupted mulishly

"AND!" Luna said sternly, her angry face burning with all the fury of a tiny kitten who'd had a ball of string taken away. "He'd never blame you for something so stupid and you know it"

Ron growled and attempted to stand back up again, only succeeding in sitting slightly straighter against the door, "You don't get it, his arm is covered in them, half way down his forearm to the tips of his fingers! I spent the whole week practicing to heal burns and none of his burns were even magical! We just rubbed burn salve on them and wrapped him in bandages they'll be gone in a few hours, but If I'd practiced healing puncture wounds or-"

This time she did slap him, admittedly more of a light tap to the face but still it knocked him hard enough to get him to stop talking and listen to her.

"You" She poked him in the chest, "knew he was going to be fighting a Dragon, so you spent every waking second learning how to fix magical burns, did you think Luna and I hadn't noticed the hours you were keeping?"

Luna sat back and crossed her legs under her, nodding fiercely along with Hermione's words and staring him down angrily.

"Harry couldn't take any other magical or enchanted items in with him, so we knew from the start that we weren't going to be able to help" Hermione said bitterly, "So we researched what we could and tried to be supportive, but did you really think, even with Luna and I not sleeping in the dorms that we didn't notice you were never back in them before the last second of curfew?"

Ron slumped tiredly "I didn't want to worry anyone" he defended weakly. "Besides it ended up being completely useless-"

"You had every reason to think knowing how to heal magical burns would be the most important thing to focus on" Luna interrupted him again, "You don't get to beat yourself up for not being able to see the future"

"And you've only been training to be a healer for less than 6 months!" Hermione interjected, "The fact Madam Pomfrey trusted you to even rub burn salve on him is miraculous for how little time you've had. You worked yourself into the ground to make sure you knew a skill you'd never practised a week before in an incredibly difficult magical discipline. You didn't let Harry down by not magically predicting how he'd get hurt Ron"

There was a long beat of silence before he let out a long sigh and pulled his knees up to his chest and rubbed his eyes roughly with the back of his hand.

"I just wish I could have done more" Ron murmured quietly, "When Madam pomfrey vanished his clothes I just-" He swallowed heavily, "I froze for a second, the burns were easy to heal but they looked so horrible, and his arm, Merlin it was so torn up it was barely being held together by the bone in some places. And the punctures"

He glanced up and saw the horrified looks he was getting, "Sorry, I shouldn't have told you that"

"No, it's okay" Hermione said sincerely, "I wanted to know"

Luna nodded "Sometimes lo-" she shook her head minutely and corrected herself so fast Ron thought he might not have heard the first half at all, "being Harry's friend means scary things are going to happen, we don't want to hide from it, or pretend it isn't happening"

"And in the spirit of that" Hermione stood up and gently helped Luna to her feet, "Can we see him?"

Ron smiled wryly at them and struggled manfully to his feet, waving off the offers of assistance as he went, "He's unconscious, and Madam Pomfrey will kill me if you get anywhere near him, but you can see him if you want" He pushed the door open slightly and jerked his head in. "Just stay back, he's in a pretty delicate spot right now, so no touching"

Hermione nodded and gave him a smile of thanks before heading in immediately, Luna paused outside the door before heading in and shot him a curious look.

"Are you coming?" she asked

Ron slumped over to the garish purple armchair and sank into it with a sigh of bliss, "Nah, I'll come in in a minute, you two get some alone time with him" He managed a suggestive wink that turned the little blonde bright red and rushing through the doors.

"I was right" a voice suddenly spoke up from in front of him, startling him awake from the brief nap he'd slipped into.

"Madam Pomfrey?" he asked, feeling as if his mouth was full of cotton, "Did I fall asleep" He yawned widely, "Sorry, you were right about what?"

The older matron simply chuckled and stared down at the exhausted boy with a proud smile.

"You" She said simply, "Now head to bed, I'll want you back bright and early tomorrow. You'll have to get used to it, no matter how hard the day a Healer has to be right back in the ward the next morning, no exceptions"

In a moment of vulnerability Ron spoke without thinking, "Do you really think I can be a Healer?" he blurted out.

Madam Pomfrey paused at the entrance to the wing and gave him a long considering look, "Mr. Weasley if I wasn't familiar with your rather deplorable self image I would think you were simply fishing for compliments" he went to object but froze when she gave him a short glare, "As it is, I will simply say this, If you continue to perform as you did today I will be be seeing you in Healer green sooner than even I could have predicted. Now get some sleep, it all starts again tomorrow"

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AN: 10,000 views passed last chapter! I never thought my little pinky toe dipping into the waters of writing would get so much positive attention! Thank you so much to everyone that's taken the time to review, it's always fun to wake up in the morning and read them.

So my first proper combat scene is done and I have to admit even though I've rewritten it about 10 times I'm still not 100% sure about it, although it's far better than the first draft. (I sorta forgot how magic resistant dragon scales are and had Harry's spells punching through them, picked that up on the first read through thankfully). So Ron gets his first reality check in healing, Harry shows the world his monster slaying chops in person rather than by story (And I'm still struggling on writing the skeeter article for this, news articles are hard!) And Hermione and Luna refuse to sit idle while they're friends work, prepping some new enchanting ideas to use once Harry is actually allowed to use other magic items again!

On a future story note, I was wondering if anyone had any particularly strong feelings about the Ron/Lavender pairing? It hasn't actually started to eventuate yet, but the more I flesh out Ron the less and less I feel like it works. I've actually been considering trying something a little...crazier for his partner, someone who can handle the craziness around Harry a little better. I won't spoil, but I'm going to be removing the Ron/Lav from the summary unless anyone has a compelling argument for Lavenders inclusion otherwise.


	8. Cinders

"We should be in the hospital wing"

"Harry wouldn't want us fretting, your Runic Coat is as designed as it's going to get without some real testing and you promised we'd do something I wanted to do"

Hermione sighed and rubbed her forehead as if staving off a headache, "Yes and I meant it, I just didn't think it would be while Harry was still in a hospital bed"

Luna hummed and twirled in place, continuing to walk backwards down the 4th floor hallways, "Ron said he'll make sure to get us before they wake him up, and it won't matter where we are in castle while he has Harry's map" She smiled peacefully, "He's okay, he'll wake up soon and we'll not be moping by his bedside so he has to cheer us up"

"Yeah" Hermione grumbled, but shook herself and put on a smile and tried to look enthusiastic, "What did you want to do?"

"Well, I've been so busy with all the getting caught up in Runes and spending time with you guys that I haven't gone around and visited everyone yet!" Luna exclaimed, spinning back and continuing to march seemingly at random down corridors.

"Everyone?" Hermione asked casually, trying and failing to hide the jealous tint in her voice.

Luna smiled dreamily over her shoulder, "I usually try to see them all a few time a year at least, they're all good people and quite fascinating to talk to as well!"

"I'm fascinating to talk to" Hermione grumped under her breath, but followed nonetheless, extremely curious to see who Luna could be talking about considering she was under the impression she'd been the girls first real friend at Hogwarts.

It took another twenty minutes of what felt like random wandering before Luna finally stopped in a completely empty corridor somewhere on the first floor and knocked conspicuously on an empty wall. Hermione watched silently and tried her best not to let her confusion show on her face, but after 30 seconds of silence she could feel her eyebrows disappearing into her hairline.

"Mr Bumblepuft!" Luna called suddenly, "I'm sorry I'm so late, I've come to visit!"

"Ah Miss Lovegood!" A voice suddenly emerged from the ancient stone and before her eyes a large portrait of a well dressed man with piercing brown eyes, cleanly cropped hair and a thin beard appeared to melt through the stonework.

"Hello Mr. Bumblepuft, how was your summer?" Luna asked sincerely, and the portrait seemed extremely chuffed to be asked, puffing up slightly.

"Wonderful my dear!" He exclaimed, "I hunted with the hounds through the dangerous grounds on the third floor, managed to bring down a chimera with nothing but my wits and spell work!" He paused and gave the young girl a warm smile, "And please, as I've asked before, call me Henry! Any young lady of your wonderful nature can call me as they please"

"I'll try Mr. Bumblepuft" Luna nodded seriously, "But there aren't any chimera's on the third floor, did they hang a new painting?"

"Ah" He said sheepishly, lifting a golden goblet full of something to hide his red cheeks and taking a long drink, "Perhaps Lady Clagg might have mentioned one of the lounging lions went missing at the same time, a coincidence I'm sure!" He laughed loudly to try and cover his embarrassment.

"I'm sure" Luna agreed, and If Hermione didn't know her as well as she did she'd have sworn that was completely sincere, "I also wanted to introduce someone!" She gestured Hermione forwards, "This is Hermione, my best friend!"

Henry gave her a serious once over, raising an overly plucked eyebrow, "Nice to meet you young miss, how did you meet our Miss Lovegood?"

Luna giggled lightly, reaching out to grasp Hermione by the elbow and pull her in front of the frame, "We got paired up for a Runes assignment and she decided we were going to be friends" She explained, "It took us a little while to get in sync, she can be awfully serious you know? But now I think we work really well together"

"Well to be fair you could use some seriousing up" Hermione smiled and wrapped an arm around the shorter girls shoulder. "It's nice to meet you Mr...Bumblepuft was it? Surely not the Henry Bumblepuft who argued against Nearly-Headless Nick's decapitation and was removed from court for it?"

"The very same!" He said proudly, "They had me placed out of the way down here for my actions, but I maintain the job he did on Lady Glaive's teeth was an improvement if anything!"

Luna giggled and gave leant into Hermione's shoulder, watching the older girl ask progressively more in depth questions of the portrait while the man in question grew more and more flustered.

Finally after ten minutes of near interrogation by the brunette he threw his hands up in surrender, "Please young miss!" He exclaimed with tolerant exasperation, "I'm merely the portrait of the man, I don't have all his memories"

"Ah!" Hermione squeaked, "Sorry! It's just such a fascinating story and there was really no record around why he was punished so severely, even he doesn't know why!"

"No harm done" he waved off her apologies, "It's easy to forget sometimes that we aren't precisely the people we're based off, particularly when you're talking to one as well put together as myself!"

Hermione gave him an arch look, but ultimately smiled exasperatedly at his over the top words, seeing why Luna had gone out of her way to see the slightly silly man.

"Well it was nice to see you again Mr. Bumblepuft but I have a lot of people to visit today!" Luna smiled sweetly, gently stepping out from under Hermione's arm.

"A pleasure to see you again!" He waved happily, and continued to do so until Hermione and Luna turned the corner and started heading to wherever Luna was leading them next.

"Can I tell you a small secret?" Luna asked, a mischievous smile on her face.

"Of course?"

"I don't call him Henry because I think Bumblepuft is a funny name" Luna admitted, starting to giggle slightly.

Hermione continued walking in silence for a few moments before she started to snicker, "Okay" Hermione agreed, "That's fair...you have an awfully good poker face you know?"

"What's Poker?" Luna asked innocently, turning big silvery eyes up at Hermione.

"It's a muggle card game where-" Hermione started to lecture before she caught the tiny spark of humour in her eyes. "Why you!"

Luna took off at a run, Harry's modified robe fluttering in the breeze as she ran and a tinkling laugh ringing through the halls while Hermione gave chase, gaining quickly on the smaller girl.

3 Hours Later

"Thank you" Hermione said, leaning back into the soft couch in the living room of Harry's tent.

"What for?' Luna asked absently, drawing something colourful on the living room table, sat on the floor with her legs curled up beneath her.

"For introducing me to all those portraits and ghost" Hermione explained, "I never realised how many interesting stories there were just hanging on the walls and floating around the castle...and it took my mind off things"

"That's okay" Luna said, "I've been meaning to visit them all for a while, and I always like spending time with you"

"Me too" Hermione agreed warmly, "Still, I had no idea the Grey Lady was actually Helena Ravenclaw, how did you find out?"

"She told me" Luna said simply, "I was quite lonely in my first year, so I would just wander and talk to whoever was willing. At first she wasn't very talkative but after a while she seemed to tolerate the conversation from time to time"

"Ah" Hermione said lamely, "Has your father asked you to write anymore articles? It was quite fun doing that one off for the Quidditch cup"

"Even though it ended up talking about how the attack was orchestrated by the Rotfang conspiracy to keep everyone too distracted to brush their teeth?" Luna asked dreamily without looking up from her drawings.

"It wasn't my favorite thing, but the initial draft we sent your father was fun to write at least?" She demurred, "And it's his paper, once it hits the editor's desk it's up to him what actually goes to print...I am glad he agreed not to put my name on it though" She admitted sheepishly.

"It's good to keep a low profile when dealing with such shady characters" Luna agreed,

Hermione smiled weakly, "Luna?" she asked, "Does it ever bother you, that I don't believe in most of this stuff?"

"Not really" Luna said airily, "Does it bother you that I do?"

"Sometimes" Hermione said carefully, "I think I've taken some healthy steps towards having a more open mind over the last few months, but some of the things in the Quibbler..."

Luna paused her drawing to drop her head back onto the couch, looking at her friend upside down, "Like the Rotfang conspiracy?"

Hermione nodded, "Yeah, I mean I agree that the idea that the Ministry might have a corrupt sect within it that is working for some nefarious purpose is possible" She admitted reluctantly, "Fudge has certainly proved he'll break the law to make himself look good, but gum disease?"

Luna nodded seriously, which looked rather odd upside down but she didn't seem to mind, "Well if you can accept the underlying premise, what's so hard to believe about the details being a little unusual?" She asked seriously.

"Well I guess it's just because it's so...silly?" Hermione mused, "I know magic can make a lot of unusual things real, but even then that doesn't mean ridiculous things automatically become true"

Luna smiled mysteriously up at her friend before turning back to her work, "That's true I suppose, but isn't it more fun that way?" she asked.

Hermione frowned in confusion, "I guess? I mean a secret conspiracy within the government using dark magic to manipulate people with some ill defined but terrible result planned is pretty miserable without the whole silly gum disease thing"

Luna hummed in agreement, "Very miserable, not fun at all to read about"

"And less dangerous too" Hermione murmured to herself, staring speculatively at the young blonde before shaking herself off and forcibly shoving that uncomfortable thought to the back of her mind. The idea that Mr Lovegood was somehow putting on his eccentric demeanor and expanding his discovery's to ridiculous lengths to protect himself and Luna from the underlying truths he was writing was ridiculous. Still she resolved to read through the next issue she got considerably more carefully and see what the stories looked like once you weeded out anything fun or crazy.

Deciding to give up that train of thought as a bad job Hermione fell onto her side with a soft thump. Ending up laying sideways with her head positioned slightly to the side and behind Luna's, peering curiously over her shoulder at what she was working on. The large sketch pad she was hunched over held a vivid view of Harry standing before the unleashed Horntail, his eyes burning brightly and wand held steadily in front of him. It was placed as if the viewer was diagonally behind the Dragon's back, so you could see the side of its face at an oblique angle. Harry on the other hand was almost entirely front and centre in the drawing, the careful lines catching the look of enraged defiance he'd had on his face.

"It's so detailed" Hermione marveled, "I knew you could draw but this is almost lifelike!"

Luna's hand shook for a moment and threw a line out of sync, she stopped her work to carefully erase it before continuing, never looking up from her work.

"I can't forget it" She admitted quietly, continuing with her work, "I'm hoping if I get it down on paper the image will get out of my head"

Hermione frowned and sat up, shuffling around until she was behind the shorter blonde, positioning the girl between her knees and reaching out to gently run her fingers through her hair. Carefully running her fingers through it, separating out thin strands of hair and weaving them together into a simple plait as her mother had taught her, then letting them loose and starting again.

"Did you want to talk about it?" Hermione asked quietly,

"Not really" Luna shook her head minutely, "I just...I thought he was going to die, right there in front of me and it was like someone had ripped part of me out and I couldn't ever get it back" She tilted her head back to meet Hermione's brown eyes, "Did you feel that too?"

Hermione nodded seriously, meeting and holding silver eyes while trying to convey the depth of emotion she'd felt in that moment.

"It wasn't the first time for me" She explained, "But it never really gets easier, you just get better at holding on to the belief that he'll be okay" Hermione smiled wanly, reaching forward to cup Luna's delicate cheeks from her position above her.

"I don't know If I can handle it" Luna admitted softly,

"Then we'll handle it together" Hermione smiled warmly down at her,

"You really meant it didn't you?" Luna asked unsurely, a flicker of insecurity in her eyes.

"Meant what?" Hermione asked, rubbing her cheek bones gently with the edges of her thumbs

"When you said you didn't just want to be with Harry"

"Mmmhmm" Hermione nodded, "with all my heart"

"You mean half your heart" Luna asked with a little bit of mischievousness to hide her nerves.

"Nope, you and Harry get all of it" Hermione's smile widened, "To have, to share with each other however you wish, just you two though" She added teasingly.

"I still don't understand" Luna admitted

"I know" Hermione agreed, "Harry won't either, I know what I'm asking for is unusual, and that's why I'm asking you and I'll ask him too, soon, to try with me. Because I think if we give it a chance, if we work together and really try than it'll work out so much better with all three of us"

"What if it doesn't?" Luna asked, unconsciously letting her free hand drift up to cup the one on her left cheek.

"I don't know" Hermione confessed, "I know it might not work out for a thousand reasons, but whenever I try to think about what I'd do if I lost either of you I just go blank. I can only be sure of one thing, no matter what happens I'll still be your best friend"

"Even if It's my fault it doesn't work out?"

"Even if you said you didn't even want to try it" Hermione promised.

"Okay" Luna sighed, smiling with more strength up at her, "When he wakes up, I want to talk to him about it, I don't want to think he might die before we even spoke to him about it"

"First thing" Hermione agreed, "I have an idea for a way to have a...trial run of sorts, did you know they're planning a Yule Ball?"

\----------

Ron watched as Hermione and Luna left the wing after he'd reassured them a few dozen times that he'd hunt them down before he and his mentor woke Harry from his magical sleep. He hadn't been surprised to find them still in the Wing when he'd stumbled out of the office and the small cot he'd slept on in there, although he was surprised Madame Pomfrey had let them stay on the spare beds overnight. In her words it was easier to keep people like he and his friends where she could see them rather than risk them sneaking around and potentially messing something up. he hadn't exactly been able to argue with that assumption seeing as he knew for a fact that Luna still had Harry's cloak somewhere on her person and would have no qualms about using it.

"How is he?" A voice suddenly spoke up from behind him, startling out of his thoughts.

He spun to find Professor Dumbledore looking over his shoulder with concerned look in his bright blue eyes, peering down under bushy eyebrows at Harry's still and silent form. The elderly man clad is a set of sky blue robes with white accents that seemed to move as if drifting slowly across the material, Ron realised with a smile that the outfit was a blue sky with clouds and a sun slowly moving around it.

"He's doing well" Ron said, turning back and drawing his wand, running it over Harry's still form. "The organ damage is mostly healed, the flesh is still new though so he'll have to be gentle on them. His arm is as close to fixed as we can make it," He placed the tip of his wand against one of the more prominent scars on the back of his hand and muttered an incantation, "There'll be a small lack of sensitivity considering the sheer amount of scar tissue but he shouldn't have any mobility issues"

Professor Dumbledore gave him an approving look, "I must admit Mr. Weasley, when Poppy came to me and said she was taking you on and your schedule had to be adjusted, at first I believed it a prank by your brothers" He smiled, "I've never been more glad to be mistaken, your progress in this field has been excellent"

"Thanks Sir" Ron said simply, giving him a strained smile.

The silence that followed wasn't exactly what Ron would call comfortable but he simply continued his morning pre work counting potions and checking the enchantments on each bed and tool still worked. Meanwhile he kept the Headmaster always in the corner of his eye, not quite staring but never letting him quite leave his field of vision. After nearly twenty minutes of this the older man turned a curious eye to meet Ron's own.

"I assume, Mr Weasley that there's a reason you're keeping such a close watch on me?" he asked politely

Ron's ears lit up bright red at being caught, but he met the older mans eyes without fear, "No offence sir, but someone's trying to kill Harry, and I don't know you well enough to tell if you're being impersonated" he explained.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled happily, "Ah you're preparing to move to his defence? He's lucky to have such caring friends" his beard twitched into a smile, "I can assure you though, it is rather harder to impersonate the Headmaster within Hogwarts than one would think"

Ron shook his head and moved back to stand next to Harry's bed facing the Headmaster across his unconscious body.

"Maybe I'm being paranoid then" Ron admitted, meeting the legendary wizards eyes fearlessly, "But until Harry's awake, no one is going to be left alone with him except me"

Albus's bushy eyebrows rose to disappear into his hairline, "That's quite some dedication Mr. Weasley, I assume that's why I received several complaints of you missing classes yesterday?"

Ron shrugged, "Sorry sir, but Harry comes over my classes at the moment. I'm happy to take whatever punishment you want though"

Dumbledore hummed quietly, moving his eyes back to Harry's arm, "I don't believe there'll be any need for that, I believe that considering the circumstances we can simply chalk it up to necessary time spent with your mentor"

"Thank you sir" Ron nodded, "By the way...what will happen with Harry's wand?"

"I'm afraid it was completely unrepairable" Dumbledore admitted, "Once he's awake I'll escort him to Ollivanders myself to get it replaced...it may even be a good thing" He mused to himself.

"I thought the first wand you got was always the best match?" Ron asked with a puzzled look.

"Ah, a common misconception" Dumbledore corrected gently, "The wand you'll match with best at 11 is not always the same one you would match at 18, it is simply a matter of acclimation and necessity. Wands are much like any other piece of magic Mr. Weasley, as long as it is compatible to a certain degree the simple act of using it will attune a wand to it's wizard over time. Even a bad match will eventually become a good one given enough time and dedication, however if we let people simply buy a new wand every time they underwent some sort of change well..."

Ron winced slightly, "That's a lot of magical animal parts" He agreed.

Dumbledore smiled proudly, "I'm glad to heart that was your first thought, many would not consider the effect having to harvest so much would have on the populations of our magical creatures" He sighed tiredly and looked back down at Harry, "Unfortunately the actual reason is far more political and financial than moral, the cost of creating wands is already subsidized heavily by the ministry and they are loath to do so further as they would have to if wands became something more easily replaceable" Dumbledore's face darkened slightly, "It would also mean that there are more wands left in the market to go missing as it were, the Ministry made it illegal for anyone not of certain groups to wield wands. I'm sure you can imagine what they fear happening if enough wands were to find their way into say, Goblin hands, without such strict production and sales oversight"

"You think they'd rebel again if they had wands?" Ron asked curiously

"My boy the Goblins have never once rebelled for a reason I would consider frivolous" The Headmaster said, "It would be more accurate to say I believe that we as a society will give them a reason to rebel again and they will simply be better armed when it happens"

Ron frowned, trying to remember the vague details he remembered from Binn's terribly boring lectures, "I thought the first ones were just because they didn't think they were getting enough representation in the Wizengamot? That doesn't sound like a great reason to go around killing people"

Dumbledore smiled sadly, "I'm sure at your age it certainly wouldn't, but you have to understand what exactly not having representation in the Wizengamot actually means. If a member of that body were to table a law tomorrow that said that Goblins could not legally leave Gringotts premises or be arrested what do you think the Goblins could do to stop it?"

Ron took a moment to triple check Harry's vitals before answering, using the time to formulate his response.

"Well they have most of our money, they could just not let us have it?" He answered unsurely

"Which would lead to war" Dumbledore said,

"Or they could...pay people on the Wizengamot to vote against the law?"

"They could" Dumbledore admitted, "But forgetting that doing so is illegal, even if they could what would stop the members of the Wizengamot from simply continuing to raise such bills and making the Goblin nation pay to keep them from passing?"

"Merlin" Ron said quietly rubbing his face and sighing tiredly, "I swear everything I learn about the Ministry the worse it sounds, so someone tried to pass a law and they found out and rebelled rather than let it happen?"

Dumbledore sighed sadly, "Not as such, unfortunately much like most of life the answers are never as easy as we'd like. They rebelled without any immediate threat, instead they did so because the Wizengamot at the time refused to accept Goblin members and they feared such a thing might happen in the future"

"So they didn't have any immediate threat to rebel to?" Ron asked, looking more and more confused.

"That's a point of debate that's persisted for centuries" Dumbledore smiled down at the redheaded boy, "And whether it's true or not is a matter of personal philosophy, would you attack first if put in a position where you were at the mercy of a larger organisation you had no say in?"

"I...I don't know"

"Most people don't" Dumbledore agreed, "But it's always worth taking the time to talk and think about such things, time spent in self examination is rarely wasted"

Dumbledore was silent for a moment before he spoke again, more hesitantly this time, "What do you believe Harry would do?"

"Harry?"

Dumbledore hummed in agreement, "You know him perhaps better than anyone, in the circumstances the Goblins rebelled what do you think he would do?"

There was a long silence while the ginger young man considered that, "I think he'd try something peaceful first, try to talk to people about it and see the best in them" Ron finally said.

"And if they didn't listen?" Dumbledore asked quietly, his twinkling eyes fading back to cold blue, "The second Goblin rebellion was about an attempt to forcible enslave Goblins as house elves are for their first rebellion. If that were attempted again with say, muggleborns"

"He'd fight" Ron said simply, then smiled grimly. "Although fight might be too gentle a word for what would happen if that law showed up in the Wizengamot"

"That didn't require much thought?" Dumbledore asked curiously

"Should it?" Ron asked, "I'd fight against that too, any decent person would"

Dumbledore smiled sadly, "You would be surprised what people will accept when it doesn't directly affect them, I have seen a great many people abandon 'the right thing' to save themselves over the years"

"Maybe" Ron admitted, "But I wouldn't, and neither would Harry, or any of my friends. Just because the wrong isn't happening to you doesn't mean it isn't wrong"

Dumbledore brightened considerably, "An excellent point Mr. Weasley, words worth living by"

Ron smiled drily up a the elderly Headmaster, "Well I'm not worried that you're not the Headmaster anymore"

Dumbledore chortled lightly, "Well I'm glad it was so easy to recognise me based on my ability to pontificate at times. Now to the reason I actually came down for, aside from checking on Harry's condition, was to ask when you were planning on awakening him?"

"Not until tomorrow morning sir, Madame Pomfrey thinks he'll do something silly if we wake him up today before his worst side effects have abated" Ron explained.

"Excellent, a Sunday should give us plenty of time" He mused to himself, "I'll return first thing then, I'm afraid Harry and I have some things to discuss before he returns to class"

"He's not in any trouble is he?" Ron frowned

"Not as such no, his actions were clearly self defence and no one who knows anything about Hungarian Horntails believes the creature would have allowed him to leave that arena alive" Dumbledore explained, "I simply wish to give him plenty of warning and a little advice on how to deal with all the attention he'll be getting until this all dies down"

Ron quirked an eyebrow, "Harry's had a bit of practise with ignoring attention sir"

Dumbledore looked confused for a moment before realisation lit up his face, "Ah, you've been avoiding the meal times as well, I had quite forgotten" He reached a wrinkled hand into one of his voluminous pockets and pulled out a rolled up newspaper, handing it across Harry's sleeping body. "I'm afraid Harry will need to do a little more than simply ignore the whispers to deal with this"

Harry Potter: Hero, Champion, Dragon Slayer.

You heard it here first, yesterday during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament Champions from all three schools were tasked with collecting a golden egg guarded by a genuine Dragon! While Viktor Krum successfully drove his off the next and retrieved his egg with minimal trouble, and the part Veela Fleur Delacour used her species natural affinity with charm magic to lull it to sleep. Naturally our native born Harry Potter stole the show, charging straight down the field at the great beast (A Hungarian Horntail, widely considered the most dangerous breed alive today) and managing to deflect it's deadly tail and fire breath with a simple shield! I should remind readers that young Mr. Potter (14) is far to young to have started learning non verbal magic and yet I can confirm with my own eyes that he was fully capable of summoning a shield capable of taking a hit from an enraged Dragon with no incantation.

Using this unorthodox but powerful strategy he made it close enough to to the Horntail that the beast was unwilling to use it's powerful fire breath, and with a stunning display of reflexes and magic drove the beast off it's eggs and stole the prize in a flash! It was during his retreat that tragedy almost struck, due to some malfunction in the chains holding the Dragon down the great beast was able to break free. The creature, angry at it's humiliation at the hands of our young Harry used the opportunity to overtake his retreat and block the exit. I must admit, even my own hardy heart nearly broke in that moment, seeing this young man standing frozen before a Dragon large enough to eat him in a single bite. To my shock none of the Dragon keepers moved to help, and it was only Ludo Bagman's (Former beater for the Wimbourne Wasps) who revealed why, due to the wording of the events rules any attempt to help would strip the champion of their magic!

The read about how such a glaring oversight made its way into the rules of this distinguished tournament please read my interview with Mr. Bagman on page 3.

Left alone against such a mighty magical creature I expected the worst, and when the creature started to slink towards him I nearly covered my eyes but for my wish to tell you all the outcome. To my shock this young man, 3 years younger than his fellow competitors and thought by most to be the underdog of the competition stepped forward. You read that correctly, and I'll swear it under oath if I must, rather freeze completely as I thought he had it was simply an unwillingness to retreat that froze our young hero. He spoke to the Dragon, and while he was too far for my own ears to hear the look on his face was that of an angry young man, not a scared one. The following battle (Detailed on page 2) could have filled the pages of one of the famous Harry Potter fantasy books and not been out of place! And once it was over the winner was clear, Harry Potter stood in spite of the grievous injuries he had sustained defeating the Horntail and walked out of the arena, collapsing into the arms of his best friend and apprentice healer Ronald Weasley. Behind him the Horntail lay, confirmed by several Dragon keepers to be dead by any shadow of a doubt, leaving Harry Potter the first confirmed Dragon Slayer under the age of 17 in History.

The mystery surrounding Mr Potters upbringing has been one that has hounded Albus Dumbledore's career since the young boy vanished after vanquishing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named shortly after his first birthday. Was our Supreme Mugwump simply raising the young man himself, training him to be his successor as the greatest wizard of his age? Speculation on page 4, and statements from fellow Hogwarts students regarding our young hero on pages 9 and 10.

We here at the prophet would like to extend our sincere hopes that Harry Potter's recovery from his injuries is proceeding well and hope he has come out unharmed.

Above the article a picture of Harry walking into the arena with a determined look on his face was contrasted with another image of Harry collapsing into his own arms, visibly coated in mud, blood and viscera.

Ron gently lay the paper on the small bedside table and and rested his head in his hands, squashing a groan of frustration as it started to sound in his throat, he could already tell this was going to be a thing.

The Next Day

"-ke up mate"

The first words Harry heard were in a familiar voice, but Ron had no room to talk about sleeping in so he felt pretty comfortable ignoring him.

"Harry, can you hear us?"

The second voice was more interesting, softer and gentler but he knew that no matter how gentle her voice was Hermione wouldn't hesitate to wake him by force if she had to, so he tried his best to stir.

"Mr Potter, if you can hear me squeeze your hand"

Madam Pomfrey, that sealed it he was in the hospital wing and they were trying to wake him from some sort of magical sleep. That was useful information, unfortunately even with his mind steadily waking up he couldn't seem to move his body, feel it? Absolutely, just couldn't seem to move it.

"Did he squeeze?" Ron asked

"No, but he's clearly conscious, see his eyelids moving?" Madam Pomfrey explained. "More than REM sleep, his body is probably just taking some time to regain feeling"

Harry felt a delicate hand slip into his right and gently run a finger along his palm, producing an unfamiliar feeling that sent a shiver down his spine and goosebumps rising along his arm.

"That did something?" An innocent voice spoke from his right, revealing the last person he could sense around his bed, Luna and Hermione to the right and Ron and Madam Pomfrey at the left.

"Feeling returned but no motor control?" Pomfrey mused "That's unusual, perhaps the antidote was-"

"Harry if you don't sit up in the next 5 seconds they're going to make Luna do the next task in your place" Ron interrupted in a deadpan voice.

In Harry's defence, he was 90% sure Ron was messing with him, on the other hand the image of the tiny blonde he was so fond of standing toe to toe with a Dragon gave him a shot of adrenaline so strong he sat up before even opening his eyes. When he did finally open them, squinting at the overly bright room he wasn't surprised to find an extremely blurry Ron to his right with Madam Pomfrey next to him. On the other side Luna and Hermione were openly giggling at his plight, although even half blind he noticed their attention didn't seem to be on his face.

"Welcome back to the land of the living mate" Ron said warmly, "We've missed you"

"How long-" Harry asked, before accepting the blurry glass of water that was floating in front of him gratefully and taking a large gulp that sent a spike of pain through his torso, "How long was I out for?"

"Three days" Madam Pomfrey spoke up, gesturing him to lay back down.

He did so reluctantly, wincing slightly at the multitude of throbbing painful points running down the left side of his body, over him Madam Pomfrey and Ron both ran their wands over him carefully.

"You were severely wounded Mr Potter and I don't want to understate just how badly" She lectured seriously, "multiple cracked ribs, second degree burns over 80% of your body with third degree burns on 10% more. Massive internal damage including a punctured liver, spleen, kidney, small intestine and lung along with the multiple massive lacerations caused by your wand exploding in your hand. Not to mention the blood loss, the concussion and the contacts that had melted onto your eyes, there's spares on the bedside table by the way."

She paused for a moment, before nodding to Ron get and letting him take over while Harry gratefully fumbled a new set of contacts into his eyes.

"I'll be honest mate, it could have been a lot worse but you're gonna have some, a lot, of scarring and a lack of sensitivity around them" Ron explained much more casually, which Harry appreciated.

"Few more for the collection?" Harry asked wanly

Ron smile reassuringly, "They look cool if that helps?" He snarked, getting a reluctant chuckle, "Four sickle sized circular scars on your torso marked almost symmetrically down the left side"

Harry glanced down at his chest and was surprised to find himself shirtless, squawking in embarrassment and pulling his blanket up to cover himself self consciously. He missed to disappointed look Luna and Hermione shared, refusing to look anywhere in that direction and holding the blanket tight to his neck.

"They're hard to see from that angle anyway" Ron said with a sly smile, "Now the rest are rather more obvious, your right arm was lacerated and punctured multiple times by your wand when it, uh, blew up. We managed to extract all the shards but the effects of phoenix feather infused wood made the wounds it left unable to be healed without scarring"

Harry frowned and let go of the sheet with his right hand, holding it out in front of him to check how bad the damage had been, unintentionally drawing in his breath sharply when he saw the sheer level of damage running from elbow to fingertips.

"Merlin" Harry breathed out, "It didn't feel that bad when it happened"

"You were going into shock" Madam Pomfrey explained gently, "I'm sorry that we couldn't-"

"No" Harry interrupted, turning his arm left and right, clenching and unclenching his fist firmly. "No apologies, I stuck my arm in a Dragon's mouth and it still works. Some weird feeling in it and some ugly scars aren't even worth mentioning" Harry smiled sincerely at his ginger friend and his mentor, "Thank you, for keeping me alive"

Ron's ears turned red and he turned around to hide it, coughing self consciously, "No problem mate" He said, before giving a shaky smile over his shoulder and hurrying into the office at the end of the wing.

Madam Pomfrey watched him go with a bemused smile before turning a much warmer one on her patient, "He spent nearly three hours extracting wooden shards from that arm one by one and healing the wounds left over" She explained, "I think he was worried you'd blame him for the scars somehow"

Harry rolled his eyes fondly, gently letting his arm settles back on his side while he kept his left uninjured arm holding the blanket in place to preserve his modesty.

"Idiot" Harry murmured, staring at the closed office door.

"I'll pass on the sentiment" Madame Pomfrey chuckled, turning to follow her student "Although perhaps not the exact words, now don't stress him out ladies, he still needs to recover"

"We won't" Hermione promised.

There was a comfortable silence around Harry's hospital bed as he settled himself back against the backboard, surprised by how sore he was after barely half an hour of being awake. He noticed Luna's eyes were still tracing his arm carefully and tried to move it under the sheets subtly, worried she was freaked out by the brutally scarred appendage.

"Don't" She whispered, stepping right up next to the bed and reaching out with a slightly trembling hand.

Harry froze unsurely, pain and embarrassment both wanting him to pull his arm under the cool sheets but unable to deny Luna such a simple request. Behind the small blonde Hermione stepped forward too to stand beside her friend and held Harry's gaze without wavering. Just when the comfortable silence felt like it was going to roll over into intensely uncomfortable Luna finally snapped out of her staring and met his eyes.

"They're not ugly" She said forcefully, reaching out with one dainty hand and laying it on his wrist over one of the longer gashes.

"Not even a little" Hermione agreed, reaching out and sliding a hand over his forearm and squeezing delicately.

"I look like I stuck my arm into a wood chipper" Harry said dryly, ignoring the warmth in his cheeks at the intimate contact. "Muggle machine that shreds wood with metal teeth" he explained, catching Luna's confused look.

"So what?" Luna asked seriously, as she ran her hand up and down his forearm slowly, "Someone trapped you in an arena with a Dragon and you slayed it and then walked out, these are more than worth it"

"Most people have-" Harry started to snark, trying to make a joke to hide his embarrassment.

"Most people would have run, or froze, or begged the be saved" Hermione took over, sliding her hand down from his forearm to meet Luna's hand, "Most people would have died"

Before he could even attempt to speak Luna had taken over, gently tracing the jagged lines on his hand with delicate fingertips. "You really think they're ugly?" She asked curiously, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

Harry almost felt as if he was in a trance, the warm tingling from his arm where two gentle hands touched and the quiet intensity of their voices combined, so he responded without thinking.

"Yes" Harry said simply.

"Not to me" Luna carefully slid her hand under his forearm and, with Hermione's help lifted it up and guided it till his hand cupped her cheek.

He felt his breath catch in his throat, the familiar feeling of her soft skin under his hand, so similar to the day in the great hall but just slightly different due to half a dozen scars on his palm and fingers. More shockingly Hermione stepped slightly behind Luna and stooped to her height before leaning in and pressing her cheek against the outside of his hand, closing her eyes and humming softly.

"Me either" Hermione agreed quietly, a thin sliver of her eyes visible from the angle Harry was at.

Harry swallowed heavily and tried to speak but found he couldn't bring himself to disrupt the moment, Hermione and Luna's faces both as peaceful and happy as he'd ever seen them. Far faster than he'd have liked, even with Hermione supporting his elbow his arm grew tired and shook slightly, startling both girls out of whatever happy place they'd been. To his shock though in spite of the red creeping up their cheeks they were both visibly reluctant to move and for some reason he didn't quite understand that reluctance made a coil of pleasant warmth fill his chest. Hermione moved first, nuzzling his hand once quickly and moving slightly away and giving Luna a significant look who followed suit reluctantly. The smaller girl brought one of her hands down to join Hermione's in supporting his arm at the elbow, almost interlacing her fingers with Hermione's in the proces.

Luna took a deep breath and glanced unsurely at Hermione, getting reassuring smile in return that seemed to give her a jolt of confidence. She turned her head, and with agonising slowness leaned in and planted a tender kiss on the scar that had been left on his palm that punched through both sides of his hand. Harry's brain was tried and failed to comprehend what had just happened, more affection than he could ever remember receiving combined with the sight of a girl he both cared deeply about and considered stunningly beautiful in her own way kissing him sending it into a loop.

"Harry" Hermione said carefully, a shaky smile on her lips as another possible failure point in her plan rushed towards her, "They haven't announced it yet, but they're going to hold a Yule Ball this year for the tournament"

Harry swallowed heavily, "Yule Ball?" He asked and glanced around for a second suddenly wondering if Ron or Madame Pomfrey had come back out and seen what had happened, thankfully not so far.

"It's a dance" Luna took over, her voice shaky, "One you have to take a date to, as a champion you'll have to open the event"

"Oh" Harry said lamely, glancing between the two carefully and wishing desperately he had some of the courage he had in the arena here.

"And I wanted to ask" Luna glanced at Hermione carefully, getting a nod. "If you wanted to come with me?"

"Y-you want to go with me?" He asked timidly, completely out of his element. "like a date?"

"Yes" Luna said with more confidence, "apparently 4th years and above are all invited, but 3rd years and below need to have a date, so I thought..."

There was an awkward pause where Harry tried desperately to reboot his brain so he could answer the question.

"If you don't want to..." Luna whispered with a bright blush

"I-" Harry started before taking a deep breath and forcefully shoving his nerves away, "I'd love to" He admitted, quickly glancing between both girls and feeling his heart swell up happily when they exchanged excited smiles.

"It's just..." He paused and glanced quickly at Hermione, "Not that I don't want to go with you anyway, you're amazing, and smart, and fun to be with and beautiful! and I'd be honored to go with you, I just..." he shook himself and thanked the sharp arm in his chest for keeping him focused, "I'm not quite sure where I was going with this"

Hermione smiled so widely her cheeks hurt but still carefully answered the question his little glances were asking without his conscious thought, "I'll be going alone" She admitted, "I'm not interested in going with someone I don't know, so if It's okay with you two I'll just spend the night with you?" she squeezed Luna's hand reassuringly and got a nod of agreement. "When Luna and I were talking about it earlier she said it was okay with her",

"I figured you wouldn't mind spending extra time with Hermione as well" Luna admitted, her pale skin so red she almost looked luminescent, "sorry that we didn't ask you first, but we just assumed it would be okay." She smiled with a hint of her dreaminess poking back through, "Plus that way we can take turns dancing so we don't get too tired' She shot Harry an innocent look, "All that running around in the mornings, you should be able to keep up right?"

Harry looked between each of them carefully, looking for any sign of regret or hesitation but to his shock they were both meeting his gaze evenly, beautiful brown and stunning silver eyes as clear as glass.

"If you're sure, that sounds fantastic" Harry said, "I'd have been happy to go with you alone Luna, but if you're offering a chance to spend the night with my two favorite people I'm not going to say no" He paused and chuckled self deprecatingly, "I'm also really glad you asked me now, with how things have been since the whole chamber thing came out being able to just say I have a date will be a good way of keeping people off my back"

Luna giggled happily, "I said something similar to Hermione when she first brought the idea up to me" she admitted, "She said we should get in early before you accidentally agreed to some girls weirdly worded proposal and felt obligated to follow through"

Hermione nodded in agreement, releasing Luna's hand and slipped her arm around the shorter girls shoulders instead and pulling her close, then reaching out to grasp Harry's hand again. "The three of us together, just like our normal except...more dancing and fancy clothes" She declared.

A trio of gentle laughter followed that and after a few minutes of shy eye contact and intermittent giggling and smiles Harry finally remembered a very important factor to the plan.

"So, is now a bad time to mention I can't dance?" He asked sheepishly.

Hermione smiled broadly, "Not at all, we've already organised a dancing instructor, we can start as soon as you're up and moving"

"I haven't practised ballroom dancing since I was 8" Luna agreed, "So we can learn together"

"It's a shame to hear that one of my teachers has beaten me to the announcement" A wizened voice suddenly spoke up from the entrance, "But at least it was to three students with the required discretion, I trust your peers won't be hearing about this early from you?"

The trio jumped in unison and separated without comment, drawing a chuckle form the elderly headmaster, standing at the entrance to the hall in resplendent mauve robes. brightly twinkling snakes chasing each other around the trim.

"I'm sorry to interrupt" He said leadingly, "But I'm afraid young Harry and I have a few things to discuss, not the least of which will be about getting a new wand"

The three young teenagers, caught red handed by their headmaster exchanged briefly panicked looks before Hermione grabbed Luna's hand and started to lead her out.

"No problem Sir, sorry to bother you, see you soon Harry!" Hermione blurted out all at once, dragging a cheerfully waving Luna out of the wing with her.

Once they had left the atmosphere of the room calmed considerably and Harry gave the twinkling eyed man an aggrieved look.

"Just arrived huh?" Harry asked half jokingly,

"I have no idea what you mean?" Albus said innocently, "I spoke up as soon as I entered"

"Sure" Harry said deadpan, before softening and giving a grateful smile, "Thank you, for waiting till we were done"

"I'm sure I have no idea what you mean" Dumbledore smiled happily

"Of course" Harry agreed, his face darkening slightly, "So my wand was unrepairable?"

"I'm afraid so, the core was completely shredded and so mixed with Dragon parts it would never have worked again"

"It was good to me" Harry said softly, "I'll miss it"

Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully, "I think...It's like a faithful pet, who saved your life but was tragically killed in the process" he gave the young man in the bed a grandfatherly smile, "To be mourned, and never forgotten for it's companionship"

"And replaced?" Harry said distastefully.

"Yes" Dumbledore smiled grandfatherly, "because much like a beloved pet, you must know that it would not want to see you alone because it loved you just as you loved it"

Harry stared for a long moment before sighing and smiling bitterly, "You're very hard to argue with you know?"

"I've been told" He nodded, "Now Madam Pomfrey has told me that you'll be quite tender, but there's no risk of exacerbating your injuries, and I'd really rather you not be defenceless under the circumstances. Are you ready to find another partner?"

Harry sighed deeply and turned with a wince, sliding out of the bed in his sleep shorts, shivering when his feet touched the cold stone. He reached under the bedside table where he knew his clothes usually resided and pulled out a new Gryffindor robe, sliding it on with a grimace.

"Before we go, I have something you should see though" Dumbledore said with a mischievous smile, pulling a paper from his pocket and handing it to Harry.

"The Daily Prophet?" Harry asked, reading the title and freezing "...fuck"

"In the spirit of your injuries, I'll forget I heard that" the headmaster said magnanimously, "Now you won't simply be able to ignore the attention from this, so I think before we leave it's finally time I gave you some advice on how to deal with your fame"

"I'm going to hate this aren't I"

"Harry my young friend we are remarkably similar at times...you're going to absolutely loathe it"

\----------

A loud crunching noise echoed around the small dusty shop as another wand failed to make an attachment to Harry and acted out instead, shattering a chair leg violently. Ollivander snatched the Ebony wand from Harry's hand before he could react, bustling into his back room without a word with a massive grin on his face. Behind him Harry exchanged a humorous look with Dumbledore, leaning back in the surprisingly comfortable wooden chair the wandmaker had dragged out when he'd seen the young man limp in.

"He does love a challenge doesn't he?" Harry asked rhetorically, getting a small chuckle from his headmaster.

"When you reach my age" A wispy voice spoke up from the back room, "You find any chance to expand your knowledge base worthwhile, and a challenging customer is simply another opportunity to learn"

The strange white haired wand maker strode out with another pile of boxes in his hands, laying them out on the counter and pulling one out with reverence, handing it back to Harry with interested eyes.

"Ash and Phoenix feather, 11 inches and quite flexible"

Harry took it and closed his eyes for what felt like the 1000th time that day, reached out with his senses and waved the wand firmly. The lack of connection he felt led to a surprising gong sound and the sour smell of lemons filling the shop, a portion of the main desk going suspiciously yellow and rough looking.

"Not that" Ollivander said unnecessarily, pulling the wand from unresisting fingers and turning back. "You are even more difficult to match now then you were on your first visit Mr. Potter"

Harry frowned and glanced at his right hand, dozens of barely healed scars tracing down from the tips of his fingers and disappearing under his robes sleeve.

"Maybe it's because I'm still attached to my Holly wand?" He asked unsurely,

"I assure you my young friend your Holly wand was as happy as a magical creation can be be to by destroyed under the circumstances it was" Ollivander reassured him, "Holly is a protective wood, given to helping those who need it overcome anger and impetuousness" He smiled mysteriously, "A broken wand is never a cause for celebration, but your Holly wand protected you when you needed it most, honor it's sacrifice"

Harry clenched his hand tightly and ignored the uncomfortable ache that spread down his arm, "It got me through a lot, when I held it for the first time it was the moment I truly felt like I was magical" His hand relaxed and he leant forward with a sigh, "And it saved my life more times than I can remember, it deserved better than being blown to pieces"

"We seldom get what we truly deserve in life Mr. Potter"

Ollivander paused in his shuffling, giving the young man a long look before turning and striding back into the recesses of the shop without a word, leaving a pile of untried wands on the front counter. He returned a few minutes later, an old and dust covered box held in his hands almost reverently and a thoughtful look on his face.

"I made this wand in my youth" He explained, drawing a wand slightly longer than his Holly wand had been and giving it a small flourish. "It was a small experiment in the use of magically crossbred wood in the crafting process. Most of the wands from the experiment worked very well, but tended to be extremely picky about their choices of partner and required quite a bit more time to prepare than a normal wand. I gave up on the idea years ago and the wands slowly filtered out to new students as time went on, except for this one" He paused before gently holding it towards Harry, "I wonder..."

Harry accepted the wand without comment and couldn't hold back a sharp indraw of breath when the mix of two pale woods hit his palm and sent a sharp spike of pleasant warmth from his fingers to his toes. A weight seemed to settle over the shop and Harry's eyes widened in surprise, watching with interest as the light brown wand in his hand slowly leaked a stream of bright white will-o-wisps, filling the store with floating lights. Slowly the lights in the room seemed to dim, even the sunlight streaming in from outside being caught up and rejected while the room filled with balls of white light. It wasn't an oppressive darkness though, and combined with the flitting lights floating around and the cool, gentle wind that had picked up it gave the entire shop the feeling of a vast forest at the break of dawn.

"Magnificent" Ollivander whispered, reaching out to cup a will-o-wisp reverently.

Dumbledore stood patiently by the door but even his venerable age didn't preclude him from wonder and he was watching a particularly energetic wisp with a gentle smile on his face, the expression seeming to take decades off his face. The darkness slowly retreated and was replaced by sunlight, the noise of the alley leaking back into the store and the wisps floating into the ceiling and disappearing, leaving an awed silence behind.

"That" Harry said quietly, "was not a stream of sparks"

Ollivander chuckled drily, "No Mr Potter it most certainly was not" He looked at the wand with reluctant happiness, like a father seeing his child finally leaving home.

Harry smiled gently and ran a finger down the length of his new wand, admiring the gentle tan colour of it and the simple elegance of it, no fancy inlay or overdone handle, just an elegant, simple wand.

"When you touch a wand for the first time it pulls a small portion of magic through you and into it, if the magic is incompatible you get the explosive results you saw with the rest. If it's a match though it takes on the tune of the wizard or witch holding it, for a child who hasn't cast before the instrument is simple, bangs and whizzes with lots of colour. For people who have already spent time with their magic though the song that plays can be fantastic, I can see why this wand matched you so well Mr Potter."

"...My wand just played a note through me?" Harry asked,

Dumbledore chuckled lightly, walking around to stand beside Ollivander, "Of a sort Harry, when I said music was a magic unlike any we performed in Hogwarts I wasn't being entirely symbolic. In a way, casting magic is like using a wand as an instrument to play a song, but with mystical energy instead of wind or vibration"

Harry tried to frown in thought, but the smile on his face just wouldn't leave, "So when Professor Flitwick says I've attuned myself to a spell sufficiently, it's more like i've learnt a song so well I can play it without thinking or looking at where my fingers are?"

"If that's how you choose to look at it" Dumbledore allowed, smiling proudly.

"But is that correct though?" Harry pressed, looking up from his wand to meet the amused gazes of the old men standing in front of him. "I've heard so many different examples, which one is right though?"

Both older men chuckled and shared an amused look, "Harry/Mr Potter" both started, but Dumbledore waved the wandmaker forward.

"Mr Potter they are all correct" he explained, "Magic is not some tangible measurable energy that can be weighed or counted or spent. It simply is, under the building blocks of reality it sits and flows and sparks and burns. How you see Magic, how you choose to learn and express it is intensely personal and no one person's example is ever truly correct or definitively correct. I myself see magic as music, a wonderful orchestra that plays beneath our range of hearing at all times and each wand a new instrument, each wizard a new player straining to find their own unique sound. Every spell a carefully crafted note, every potion a page of perfectly written music and every enchantment a song woven into an item ready to be listened to at any time."

While he talked Harry gently rolled the wand in his hands back and forth, unconsciously getting familiar with the feel and weight of it, slowly starting to twirl it between his fingers while he was enraptured.

"For myself" Dumbledore took over, his bright blue eyes lit up happily "I see Magic as the truest expression of nature, the beautiful clash of wind and water and fire and earth, of predator and prey, trees growing towards the sky and roots sinking deep into the earth. It can be as gentle as a warm breeze on a cool day or as violent as a hurricane, as light as a feather floating in the sky or as deep as the oceans depth, crushing and oppressive. Much like nature, it can be cruel and kind in equal measure and the magic we use reflects this, curses to harm, charms to heal and potions like a great tree slowly formed by patient work. The greatest examples of magic in my experience are achieved by working within it, guiding and helping but allowing the nature of magic itself provide the results."

A gentle tingling feeling settled over the room and both older men gave him serene looks, as if the mere act of explaining their philosophies provided some sort of joy in itself. Harry meanwhile was staring thoughtfully at Dumbledore, occasionally glancing at Ollivander as well and trying to figure out his own interpretation of what they were saying.

"There's no need to force yourself Mr Potter" Ollivander smiled, "Most wizards never truly come to an answer about their magic, and certainly none of them ever develop that understanding as young as you are. If you want to become a truly great wizard though you should think on it, try new things, create and learn and over time it will slowly come to you."

"These things take time and experience" Dumbledore agreed, laying a wrinkled hand on his shoulder. "There is no rush in this"

Harry stood with a shaky grimace, but gave both older men a thankful smile once he was on his feet, "I appreciate you telling me about your own interpretations" He said almost formally, feeling the gravitas of what he'd been told keenly.

"My pleasure Mr Potter" Ollivander said graciously, then getting back to business. "Now, your new wand is one of my more interesting creations, carved from the heart of a magically crossbred Maple and Cherry tree. Paired with the heartstring of a particularly ancient Antipodean Opaleye it was an experiment in contradictions I truthfully wasn't sure would ever be paired, although I had hoped..."

"Contradictions?" Harry prompted, flicking his wrist to slide the wand into his new holster and wincing at the sharp pain the movement caused.

"Maple is a wood that favors travelers and explorers, it's a wood that will truly shine with a person of ambition who seeks out fresh challenges and experiences. While Cherry wood often creates wands of truly potent power, focused and absolutely lethal in the right hands and yet...the Antipodean Opaleye is perhaps the least aggressive of any Dragon, known to find a den and hold it for life, only leaving to hunt and never straying far. A wand that seeks new experience but holds it's home close to heart, a wand with lethal power that doesn't seek battle, a true contradiction...curious one could say"

"Very curious" Ollivander rang up the cost on his old fashioned hand crank cash register, the register rang out loudly and ejected the tray, "18 Galleons if you please"

Harry smiled wryly at the older man, pulling his money pouch out and counting out the coins, "You do that on purpose don't you?"

"Perhaps" Ollivander smiled mysteriously, "There is a certain mystery the customers expect from a wand crafter after all"

The odd pair only made it a single step out of the doors of Ollivanders before a wall of sound hit and froze them both in their tracks, dozens of witches and wizards having gathered outside while Harry had been trying wands. It was hard to tell considering how packed the area was but if Harry had to guess there were easily 50 adult magicals all just sort of hanging around this section of the alley. They were all packed into small groups of people all talking to each other and not so subtly watching the entrance, and now they'd seen them exit they were starting to gather together and move towards them.

"Is this what you meant by worse?" Harry whispered up at the headmaster worriedly,

"Mmmhmm" he hummed in agreement, "simply keeping your head down when dealing with the magnitude of attention here would do more harm than good, as we practiced?"

"Do I have to?" Harry asked, doing his best not to sound like he was whining.

"It's the best option I'm afraid" Dumbledore said sympathetically.

"...Damn it" Harry muttered before plastering as real a smile as he could on under the circumstances and stepping forward towards the gathered crowd. "Good morning!" He called to the staring crowd of people, raising a hand to wave as confidently as he could manage.

There was a small beat of silence before the crowd surged forward and it seemed like they all started speaking at once, only slowing slightly when Harry stepped forward and and raised his right arm in front of him palm forwards. It was like someone had silenced the crowd, dozens of people pausing and really taking in the sight of his barely healed arm in near complete silence.

"Thank you" he said swallowing so loudly he was sure they could hear it and trying not to think about the silence that had fallen over the crowd at the sight of his arm. "Uh, I'm only here to replace my wand after it was, broken, during the last task" He paused and glanced around, unsure what to say. "Did...did you want to ask anything?"

That turned out to be a mistake because once again a cacophony of noise filled the alleyway and Harry almost flinched, looking back at Dumbledore helplessly. The older man shook his head and ran a hand down his beard absently before holding up a single finger and silencing the crowd with a look. He gave Harry an encouraging look and went back to simply watching the crowd with calm interest, leaving Harry to them once again.

"Alright" Harry cleared his throat and glanced desperately around hoping something would jump out at him, luckily a young woman with a small child by her side was waving eagerly at him and seemed a safe bet. "Yes, uh, you? Miss, with the young girl?" He gestured in her direction without quite pointing.

The brunette young woman beamed widely and stepped forward out of the crowd with what he assumed was her daughter in tow, a young girl who looked maybe 4 or 5 who was clutching her hand tightly and looking up at him with awe.

"What can I do for you...?"

"Snowbell, Anise Snowbell!" The mother chirped happily, "This is my daughter Olive, say hello Olive"

The little girl clutched her mother's hand tighter and stepped slightly behind her robes, "...Hi" she said in a small voice.

"Hello Olive" Harry said gently, finally relaxing a little now that he had an individual to focus on rather than a sea of faces. "What can I for you?"

"...s'okay" She whispered quietly, turning bright red at all the attention.

"No need to be nervous sweety" Anise said, reaching down and lifting her up to sit the girl on her hip heavily. "She brought her favorite Harry Potter story with her today, I was going to read it for her over lunch. Would you mind signing it for her?"

Harry started slightly and turned quite red, "Harry Potter stories?" he asked curiously, stepping forward and accepting a small paperback book with a picture of what looked like a smaller version of him on the cover standing next to a Sphinx. Around them the crowd was watching closely, either waiting their turn or simply curious to see what happened he didn't know.

Behind him Albus cleared his throat gently, "Fiction books, your estate manufactures them as children's stories" he explained quietly so only Harry and the mother and daughter could hear.

"You didn't know about them?" Anise asked surprised

"No" Harry said quietly, flicking through the book quickly "A friend of mine mentioned something like this but I thought he was taking the mickey" he shrugged and pulled a quill from his pocket, trying his best not to grimace when he signed his name in spidery lettering on the first page.

"It's my favorite" The little girl suddenly spoke up from her place on her mother's hip, reaching out towards him.

Harry smiled apologetically and went to hand it back, "I'm glad you like it" He said as happily as he could manage, but jerked back in shock when the little girl instead of grasping the book like he expected reached past and latched her arms around his neck.

Her mother almost unbalanced but thankfully Harry managed to steady her with one hand and get his other arm under the little limpet that had all but leapt onto him and was currently half hanging off him with only her arms around his neck keeping her attached. Harry floundered for a moment before the mother took pity and gently adjusted the girl so she was sat on his left hip with his unharmed arm acting as a seat for her. Still Harry was staring incredulously at the young girl that had somehow ended up attached to him and the mother that had stepped back and was resting her cheek in her hand and smiling widely. Meanwhile the little girl had buried her head in his neck and starting speaking at a mile a minute, not a single word penetrating his brain. There was a brief moment of agony when she first latched on before a pleasant numbness settled over him and he shot a grateful smile at his headmaster, the numbing charm dulling the sharp pain in his torso.

"Oh I wish I had a camera, this would make an incredible memory for her" She mused quietly,

Behind her another member of the crowd stepped forward and snapped a shot with a loud snapping noise and a puff of purple smoke. Smiling innocently without realising the twitch he'd caught in Harry's arm had almost been a curse cast his way on reflex.

"I, uh, I'm really sorry to cut this so short but I really should be in class-" Harry started, but was smoothly cut off by Dumbledore before he could make his excuses.

"Which is why we'll be leaving in 15 minutes' He said pleasantly, "That and I would hate to block up the alley any longer than that" he chuckled good naturedly.

Harry gave him a betrayed look, but managed to throw on a smile again before turning back to the crowd, waving Anise to step up beside him next to her daughter as he did so. The next 15 minutes were some of the most mentally exhausting Harry had ever faced in his entire life, between his left arm slowly getting tired, the crowds questions, signing things one handed and the almost cursing the photographer several times he was run down. Finally Dumbledore stepping up next to him and put his hand on his shoulder, silencing the next questioner without needing the say a word.

"I'm sorry to interrupt" He said with a grandfatherly smile, "But I'm afraid Harry still has schooling to get back to, so we'll have to start heading back now"

There was some grumbling from some small pockets but overall the dozens split off happily and soon Harry and his headmaster were alone with just Anise and Olive, who still refused to release her hold on his neck. It took more than a little coaxing from her mother and a little gentle physical untying but eventually they managed to get her off and onto her own two feet.

"Thank you Mr Potter" Anise said gratefully, a broad smile on her face. "This'll have made her year, I really appreciate how well you handled it"

Harry's fake smile he'd maintained for the crowd melted off his face, leaving a tired but sincere one in its wake.

"No problem" He said quietly, kneeling down to match Olive's level as best he could. "It was nice to meet you Olive"

"It was nice to meet you too!" She exclaimed happily, diving forward again but this time being caught by her mothers quick hands.

"Uh uh" She said tolerantly, "Mr Potter has to go now, he has classes to get back to, what do we say?"

"Good bye!"

"Good girl, thanks again" Anise said, before turning and ushering a frantically waving girl off with her finally leaving the two alone.

"Hold your breath" Dumbledore instructed for the second time that day and Harry barely was able to brace himself before the feeling of being squeezed through a straw hit him.

With a gentle pop the duo appeared at the gates of Hogwarts and aside from Harry leaving over and taking several deep breaths to settle his stomach neither was worse for wear.

"That wasn't so bad?" Harry said optimistically, giving the headmaster a weak smile.

"There's no shame in hating the limelight Harry' Dumbledore said with an amused look, "Don't worry, it gets easier with time and practise and the results are worth the effort"

"I don't see how they could be" Harry grumbled, but started to follow the professor back to the castle.

"There are several dozen people in this small world of ours right now who you just interacted with, perhaps not all on a personal level but I would wager most felt like they got a good read on your real personality from that" Dumbledore explained, "People will believe anything about a stranger, and being who you are eventually the papers are going to print something other than implying you grew up pureblood. At that point those people, plus whoever you interact with in the future will take far more convincing to believe any attempt to slander you. As long as you're sincere when you speak to reporters or fans and set clear boundaries on what's appropriate to ask you it can nip a lot of potential issues in the bud."

Harry grimaced but nodded, "Is that why you never seem to care when skeeter calls you a crackpot or dried up old fossil in some of her articles?"

"Ah partially" The Headmaster admitted with a smile, "But also because that part happens to be a little bit true"

\----------

AN: I'm not sure about this chapter, it's a lot of set up and fluff which I always enjoy writing but for some reason it took way more rewrites than usual to get it to where it is now. Hopefully the underlying arcs are becoming clearer, Luna and Harry have an official date and Hermione has cleverly put Luna in a position where she'll have to voluntarily let "her" date dance with her. Ron and Dumbledore expand a little on the backstory of the Goblin rebellions that are never really touched on much in canon. Much like real life things are messier than you'd expect at first glance and that will tie in later, sometimes the right thing isn't good, and sometimes the good thing isn't right.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I got a tonne of very good advice and opinions on my Ron pairing dilema and I've been taking it all on board. I hope you all enjoy who I finally decide on and that i manage to put the pairing together well enough that everyone enjoys it.

There might be a slight delay on the next chapter while i try to put all the pieces on the board for the Yule Ball without missing anything, but I'll have it ready ASAP.


	9. Ashes

"Put your 'and a leetle lower 'Arry" Fleur instructed lowly

"If I put it any lower I'm going to get slapped" Harry said nervously, his face already flushed.

"Non, it iz part of it" She encouraged him with a grin.

Harry swallowed heavily and ran his hand carefully down, ignoring the gentle shiver he felt as it moved from waist to hip.

"There?" He asked quietly, getting a pleased hum in response.

"Good, now step closer"

Harry almost balked again but took a deep breath and stepped in until he could feel body heat through their clothes, never taking his eyes off his partner but never quite making eye contact.

"Zat's better" Fleur said, "Now slide your left foot forward, then step forward and right with your right foot. Once you're there step back with your right, then back and left with your left foot, you'll be moving in a square formation to start with"

There was a bit of fumbling but he managed to follow through, although it did feel more like he was being led than doing the leading, not that she seemed to mind.

"Good" Fleur complimented, "But you're too stiff, zis iz the simplest waltz but zat does not mean it can't be...intimate" She giggled and lowered her voice slightly, "Now again, but zis time don't be afraid to get close, you should be swaying slightly while you move"

"Like this?" Harry asked nervously, leaning forward slightly when he performed the first step and feeling far more than he was prepared to acknowledge, even mentally.

He swayed right with more control, his natural balance keeping him centered even while he was desperately thinking about how intimate even this simple dance felt. He repeated this pattern several more times, slowly gaining confidence until he felt he could safely say he was used to and could ignore the feel of another body pressed against his.

"Much better" Fleur purred,

"Do you have to say it like that!?" Hermione asked shrilly from a seat to the side of the open floor of Harry's living room, the couches pushed right up against the wall.

She had grabbed a cushion and was hugging it tightly while Harry received his first lesson in the intricacies of ballroom dancing, occasionally using it to hide how red she was turning at Fleur's suggestive tone. In the center Harry and Luna were stood front to front, Harry's hand low on Luna's hip and her's resting gently against his chest, the two of them being carefully positioned for a rather more intimate waltz than Luna was used to.

"Non" Fleur admitted, "But you zree are all so adorable" She shot the younger brunette wicked grin "Just because zis is paying you back does not mean I cannot have fun"

"I don't mind" Luna said cheerfully, as red as a tomato but grinning like mad.

Harry tried to grumble but couldn't quite keep his lips from twitching up into an embarrassed smile, considering how happy Luna looked he could hardly bring himself to make a fuss no matter how embarrassed he got. Fleur meanwhile was standing to the side of the dancing couple, watching them with a critical eye and a teasing tilt to her lips.

"Don't worry 'ermione, it will be your turn soon" Fleur teased, gently moving Luna's off hand slightly so it fit more comfortably into Harry's.

The inarticulate groan Hermione gave at that was muffled by the pillow she'd half buried her face in but her eyes were still visible and shooting daggers at the older french girl.

She shrugged elegantly, "Zis is 'ow ze French waltz, we are not so...repressed as ze English" She paused and tapped her chin with a delicately manicured finger and grinned wickedly at Hermione, "Besides, zis iz much more fun! Now, back to it you two, zere is not enough time to dilly dally"

Luna would like to say all her attention was on relearning the relatively simple dance as quickly as possible so they didn't waste their instructors freely given time any more than necessary. Unfortunately she couldn't say that with any honesty because she was acutely aware of the feel of Harry's well muscled torso pressing against her own and the electric feeling of friction whenever they moved together. That combined with the warm look in his eyes and almost giddily happy smile he had while he moved with her was enough to make her want to reach up and drag him into a kiss, damn the consequences. Even worse she was getting no help controlling that urge from her partner in romance sitting on sidelines at the moment either. Every time they turned enough she could catch Hermione's eye over Harry's shoulder the older Gryffindor looked almost as happy to see her dancing with Harry as she was to be dancing with him. Luckily Fleur kept up her running instructions on improvements to their technique and the occasional French accented input kept her from making a more serious move.

It was nearly an hour of slowly improving dancing before Fleur declared the pair proficient enough at the simple waltz to let them take a small break, by which point Harry was confident enough to be sweeping Luna around in the simple steps he knew. It was an experience he wasn't quite sure how to quantify, some odd alchemy of the pleasant burn he got when he exercised combined with the same undefinable warmth he'd felt in the great hall all those weeks ago. Under that though was a feeling he wasn't sure he'd ever felt so strongly, like the gnawing hunger he'd felt as a child, but not for food or water. A pleasant ache of want for something he couldn't put his finger on, but that he knew was within his grasp if he just leant down and...

"Excellent!" Fleur called, shocking Harry from the near trance he was under and startling him so much he stopped on a dime and almost fell. "Zat's good, now it iz time for 'ermione to practice"

"Sorry" He told the blonde haired girl in his arms, smiling apologetically.

Luna shook her head with a smile and stepped back, not able to hide the enjoyable shiver the feeling of his hands trailing over her skin gave her.

"That was fun" She exclaimed happily, "We should do it after the ball sometime?"

Harry nodded enthusiastically and walked her over to the couch where Hermione sat, curled into the corner with her legs bunched up underneath her.

"Absolutely, I didn't think it would be so much fun" He admitted.

Luna collapsed onto the couch next to Hermione with a giddy grin and flushed face, giving her friend a wide eyed smile and getting a flushed but approving smile back. Harry however was far from winded and in spite of Fleur's offer to take a few minutes to rest he simply smiled and held a hand out to his long time friend.

"Ready?" He asked happily, wiggling his fingers slightly in invitation.

Hermione shot Luna a questioning look, but aside from a tiny flicker of doubt Luna nodded with an encouraging smile even though she couldn't hide a hint of uncertainty.

"Ready" Hermione agreed, taking his hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet, leaving the cushion behind for Luna to grab and copy her previous position.

The giddiness and odd hunger Harry still felt from his first time dancing made him a little less gentle than he would have normally been, giving Hermione a sharp tug once she was on her feet. The surprised girl squeaked and stumbled forward into Harry's open arms, stopping with her palms pressed against his chest and his hands around her waist to hold her steady. Fleur gave the pair a contemplative look before glancing at the younger Ravenclaw on the couch who was watching them with a considering look and a fond smile, but ultimately decided to keep her thoughts to herself.

"Zat's not exactly traditional, but it will do" Fleur declared, stepping up to the entwined pair and carefully adjusting Harry's hands so they were more on Hermione's hips and nodded approvingly. "Now as before, ze steps do not change just because ze 'ands 'ave moved"

Hermione almost looked like she was ready to object up at that, her face burning and a vaguely familiar heat rising in her stomach at the feel of her crush pressed up against her. Harry didn't give her a chance though, almost lifting her off his feet in his enthusiasm and forcing her to focus on her feet before she tripped over them or stood on his. She gasped in what she hoped Harry would think was surprise, grateful that her cheeks couldn't possibly go any redder that they already were but incredibly aware of the feel of his body pressed up against hers and his rock hard pectorals flexing and moving under her hands. Unfortunately one of the disadvantages of the overactive mind she had was that it took several goes through the routine before she could get her imagination under control enough to focus. Once she finally had she realized they were moving together almost seamlessly, until she started to think about her feet and they suddenly lost rhythm.

"Non non" Fleur interjected, "You were doing so well, you cannot think so much or you will 'esitate"

"Sorry" Hermione replied, turning to look at their instructor. "I have a hard time turning my brain off"

A delicately sculpted eyebrow raised at that, "You 'ave manage quite well for ze last 10 minutes" Fleur said with a knowing smile.

"That's not-" Hermione tried to splutter. "I just need to-"

"'Arry?" Fleur interrupted, catching her eye and winking, "When you're partner cannot focus, you must not give 'er a chance to overzink, double time if you please"

Hermione turned a concerned eye back to her dance partner and was surprised to find him staring at her with an almost predatory look on his face to match the one she'd seen just before his dance with Luna had ended. Her breath caught in her throat and she moved without thought when he quickly reset their stance to more closely match the traditional hold they'd been shown at the start. On Harry's side he had left most of his critical thinking behind back when he was about to kiss Luna and the lack of a break to cool down meant he had only been getting worse. From the moment he'd half yanked Hermione into him and felt her mold to his front he'd been ready to lean down and capture her lips, then drag her over to the couch and drag Luna into them as well. The core of iron control he kept over himself had been more than enough to resist so far, but being asked to move faster and burn some of the frustration he was feeling off was a godsend. He turned and with very little effort lifted Hermione off her feet, ignoring her squawk of surprise and sliding back and to the side as he'd been taught.

On the couch Luna was squeezing the pillow Hermione had left her for all her worth, the soft cushion providing both an excellent release for her frustrations and the agreeable smell of her best friends perfume giving her something else to focus on. The spectacle in front of her was unfortunately making it almost impossible to keep the usual calm and collected feeling she tried to cultivate. It wasn't the jealousy she had expected and feared to feel seeing her date and her best friend all but entwined together, although she wouldn't deny there was a spark of that. Instead there was an unusual mix of the warm fondness she felt whenever she spent time with either of them combined with a far hotter burning need to leap out of the chair and tackle them both to the ground. She wasn't sure what the plan was from there but the feeling remained all the same.

"Zis is not what I expected" Fleur spoke up suddenly, the older French girl having sat so delicately beside her she hadn't even felt the couch shift. "When 'ermione asked me to teach her and some friends to dance" she clarified.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked, forcing a dreamy smile up to cover some of her embarrassment.

Fleur raised an eyebrow and leant in slightly to be heard, "Ze three of you are a, I do not know the English, a ménage à trois" She explained, "I was surprised, I did not zink zis place would be open to such zings"

Luna's eyes widened and she started to panic before she caught the interest and lack of condemnation in the older blonde's voice.

"...You don't think it's weird?" She asked, watching Fleur's face carefully.

Fleur shrugged elegantly, "It iz not my place to say, but it iz not zat unusual at 'ome" She gave the younger girl an encouraging look, "As long as you are all 'appy zat is what matters"

"It's not official yet" Luna admitted quietly, "That's partly why we wanted these lessons, I'm not sure how I feel about sharing my boyfriend...or about having a girlfriend and a boyfriend"

"Ah" Fleur smiled approvingly, "So 'ermione is the one at ze wheel zen"

Luna nodded with a nervous smile, "Yeah, how could you tell all this anyway?"

"She is not as subtle as she believes" Fleur caught the confused look Luna sent her and elaborated, "When you were dancing her eyes were not just on 'arry" She explained, "But zere was no jealousy zat most people would 'ave if they were dating, and when you swapped ze look she gave you, like she was asking permission" She shrugged, "If it was just watching I would 'ave assumed a love triangle, she loved you both but you were already together. Once zey started dancing though...Zat young man is so smitten with you both I can practically feel it and 'ermione is ze same. Ze only one I'm not sure about is you"

Luna felt an odd stirring in her stomach, "I don't know" she admitted, "Before Hermione I'd never really thought about girls like that, but once she brought it up I started to...think about it" She let her chin rest on the pillow in her lap and sighed happily "I'm just not sure, and I don't want to get her hopes up if it's just some phase or something"

The quickly stifled snort Fleur let out earned her a betrayed look, but she managed to cut it off and start speaking before Luna could get upset.

"Sorry, sorry I don't mean to laugh" She said apologetically, "It is just...I forgot how young you were for a moment"

"Only a few years younger than you" Luna grumbled

"In years yes, but I meant in experience" Fleur corrected, "I 'ave had boyfriends, and even a girlfriend once. I forgot zat zis would be your first" Fleur paused for a moment to call an instruction to the dancing pair before turning back to the young girl at her side.

"Zey were your friends first?" Fleur asked, "Before ze romantic feelings, you enjoyed zere company and if zis does not work you will still want to be with zem?"

"Yes of course" Luna objected, "They're my best friends!"

"And you said you were worried your feelings were a phase?" Fleur asked "So you do 'ave feelings for 'ermione?"

"...Yes, it isn't exactly the same as what I feel with Harry, but when she gives me a hug or..." Luna trailed off and shook her head to disperse a small blush.

"Zen I 'ave a small piece of advice, if you want?" Fleur smiled down at the smaller girl in an almost sisterly fashion, seeing her own little blonde sister in Luna's place and feeling a surge of affection. "When you confess to 'arry after ze ball, kiss her"

"What?" Luna asked dumbly, not even trying to put a mask up to hide her incredulity. "I'm not even sure if I'm going to-"

"You will" Fleur interrupted confidently, "I can see 'ow much zey mean to you, you will at least try I am sure of it" She smiled encouragingly "If you feel a spark from zat kiss, tell 'er"

"And if I don't?"

Fleur smiled indulgently, "If you feel nothing zen you tell 'er anyway, ze way she looks at you...she will not 'old it against you"

Luna turned back to the floor and watched them dance thoughtfully, "Just a kiss"

\----------

The Hospital Wing was, for the most part, a fairly peaceful place to be on any given day. Which was lucky as Ron had been spending an unhealthy amount of time there lately, between his mandatory hours on the floor and his study before Harry's first task. Thankfully since the second task was months away and they hadn't figured out the clue he was taking the opportunity to relax a bit, or at least he was.

"You tripped" he asked flatly, eyeing the 5th year Ravenclaw who was nursing a titanic welt on his upper thigh and a bright red face.

The older student had limped in a few minutes earlier, and after quite a bit of cajoling had stripped to his pants behind a security screen and shown him the incredibly painful looking lump.

"Yeah, onto a door knob" He nodded, "Are you sure Madam Pomfrey isn't here?"

"Positive, she can be called for emergencies which unless that's actually a dark curse this definitely isn't." Ron explained, fighting the urge to slap his forehead while he grabbed two jars of salve from a cupboard near the bed.

"These are treatments for two different kinds of welt" Ron explained, putting them down the bedside table and sliding one forwards, "If you did fall into a doorknob, which would mean you fell up into a door somehow this will have you pain and lump free in 10 minutes" He pulled the first jar back and slid the other forward, "If on the other hand you got that from say, a stinging hex aimed at your tackle by someone you asked to the dance in a less than complimentary way, this will have you right as rain in less than an hour"

The sandy haired Ravenclaw gained a briefly panicked look, before schooling his features and pointing at the first jar, only lowering his hand when Ron spoke up again.

"If you take the wrong one, it'll spread the welt to the surrounding area" Ron said blandly, glancing meaningfully at the older boy's boxers, "The entire surrounding area"

There was a beat before the red faced Ravenclaw reluctantly pointed again, this time at the second jar and steadfastly looked at the curtain behind Ron's shoulder. A few minutes later he limped from the wing with a small tub of salve ensconced in his pocket and a promise that anything Ron heard in the Hospital Wing was considered privileged information.

"That's two bottles of the same salve" An amused voice spoke up from a seemingly empty chair two beds over from where Ron had seen his patient.

Ron shrugged, "You said inaccurate information kills, he told me the truth this way"

A soft chuckle came again from the empty air before, with the look of paint dripping down a wall Madam Pomfrey reappeared seated comfortably seated.

"I meant for that lesson to be about more serious injuries" She gently chided

Ron grinned back unrepentantly, "If he's afraid the next healer might not warn him he won't try to lie" He nodded mock authoritatively, "That's an ounce of prevention right there"

"Excellent" Madame Pomfrey smiled back approvingly, "Now back to your homework" She pointed at the small office.

"Oh come on" Ron whined, slumping and starting to trudge back to his pile of nearly untouched work. "Can't I just practise my countercurses?

"No student of mine will be leaving Hogwarts with mediocre OWLS Mr. Weasley" She said firmly, before softening slightly, "I don't expect perfection, simply effort"

"I know, I just...I can't focus on any of it!" He complained, "It's like I get a few lines into writing about how to brew a potion and suddenly the stain on the desk looks like the most fascinating thing on the planet"

His mentor sighed, "It's not an uncommon problem for students that have issues keeping focus, but no matter how well you do under my mentorship, you won't be allowed to intern at a respectable hospital without decent OWLS" She sighed slightly, "I know you're capable of hard work with the proper motivation, perhaps we should see about getting you a tutor for your regular classes?"

Ron grimaced and shook his head, "The only person I know well enough to ask is Hermione and there's no way I can this year, not with everything else going on"

"A tutor would-"

"Excuse me?" A very faintly accented voice called from the entrance

Madame Pomfrey gave him a pointed look and tapped herself on the head, disappearing from view silently as Ron turned and walked back into view.

"What can I do for you?" He asked politely, before doing a double take. "Parvati, Lavender is everything alright?"

Between his two yearmates was a near exact copy of Parvati although with a blue trim on her robes, who was nursing her wrist with a pained look on her face.

"Padma hurt her wrist" Parvati said sourly, gently directing her sister to the open bed Ron had gestured them towards.

"Shouldn't we wait for Madame Pomfrey?" Padma asked with a wince,

"It's okay" Lavender soothed, "Ron's been working here all year, he even helped heal Harry after the whole Dragon thing"

Ron meanwhile had slipped into healer mode, shoving his usual trepidation at being near any pretty girls to the side with ease.

"Can I see?" He asked calmly, meeting her eyes and ignoring the tiny voice in the back of head screaming at him.

She turned faintly red, no doubt not helped by the duo on either side of her that had started to giggle obnoxiously but still lifted her hand and placed it delicately into his.

"Hmm, red and swollen on the fingers and palm" He murmured, gently turning it over in his hands and ignoring he small wince of pain, "You've sprained your wrist because you hit something, hard"

Parvati opened her mouth to say something, based on the mutinous look on her face probably something less than nice but Ron simply held up his hand.

"Which I don't need to know about if you don't want to tell me" He explained, drawing his wand and waving it over his patients arm, murmuring an incantation that numbed the area. "Although if I had to guess why you might have hurt your wrist based on some of the previous patients I've had today...someone asked a question less than delicately?"

Padma turned redder but looked to the side and refused to answer, Lavender had no such intention.

"Hockby asked Parvati to the Ball and when she said no he turned to Padma and said 'she was pretty much the same anyway'" Lavender scowled

Ron paused for a moment in his observation and a hint of his normal personality surfaced again, "...He said what?" He asked incredulously

"I know!" Parvati exclaimed, "What kind of jackass says something like that?"

"Well he won't do it again" Ron chuckled quietly, turning and pulling a small phial from the locked cupboard next to the bed. "I imagine he just might not speak to a girl again for a while actually"

"Good" Padma scowled, "I'm so sick of the 'twins huh?' comments from every asshole in Hogwarts" She shot Ron an uncomplimentary look, "Why is every guy obsessed with the fact that we're twins anyway, we're nothing alike!"

"I...what?" He asked confusedly as he started to turn red, "Just, just drink this and I'll wrap it for you, should be right in a bit"

Padma didn't look any happier at his non answer but she still downed the phial quickly with a grimace and didn't complain when Ron summoned a roll of bandages and set about wrapping them around her wrist and hand.

Once he had finished he gave the bandages a light tap with his wand and watched carefully as they lit up a faint green, nodding in satisfaction once the colour had faded.

"Okay, don't take that off it'll disappear once it's done it's work a little after dinner" Ron instructed, trying to gather a bit more professionalism.

"That's actually a good question" Lavender mused, giving him a speculative look, "What did you mean by previous patients?"

Ron's face closed off almost immediately, "Anyone and everyone's treatment here is completely confidential" He said firmly, "Don't ask me about that again"

Lavender and Parvati recoiled slightly in surprise but still nodded rapidly in acquiescence, Padma on the other hand gave him a curious look.

"You aren't what I expected" She said curiously, "Some of the other Ravenclaw's have said you've been pretty antagonistic lately, and Parvati always said you were kind of a goofball" She glanced over his faintly rumpled white button down shirt with rolled up sleeves and clean black slacks. "You're so...serious"

Ron gave her a flat look and held up a single finger, "Okay a few things, firstly, I take healing very seriously because if I joke around here people get hurt, you want fun Ron come talk to me outside of this room" He held up a second finger and turned to Parvati, "Secondly, you've been talking about me to your sister?"

"We talk about boys sometimes" Parvati said unrepentantly.

"You talk about boys, I try to ignore you" Padma replied mutinously.

"Right" Ron said drily, "Well things have been different this year, so consider anything she told you before that useless" he held up a third finger, "And lastly, some Ravenclaws were blatantly stealing my friends things, bullying her and treating her like crap and not one single one of you did a damn thing about it" He scowled harshly, "Near as we can tell just about everyone in the tower knew about it but never said a word, so if when I'm not on call here I sometimes get the urge to give them a dirty look they can live with it"

"Is that why Luna suddenly started turning up in the common room all the time?" Lavender asked suddenly.

"Yes" Ron said, shooting her a serious look, "We went to Flitwick about it, but considering how widespread it was he couldn't do anything unless he just punished everyone which might catch some innocent people and make the whole thing worse. So while she's on the Ravenclaw rosters she has separate accommodations, so far as long as she isn't actually living there everyone seems to be leaving her alone."

"Why didn't he just start punishing people he caught?" Lavender asked curiously

The look Ron gave her was drier than sand, "Because that would make them angry and they'd start escalating, even Professor Flitwick knew they'd just get worse if they knew she was telling on them"

"That's not right" Padma said quietly

"Yeah well that's bullies for you" Ron rolled his eyes, "Besides it wasn't like he picked this option just for Luna's sake, he knew exactly what was gonna happen if they started getting worse"

He got three curious looks for that, although Padma's was tinged with a guilt he was pleased to see so he decided to elaborate a bit.

"Look, let's say he does what any teacher does and gives out some detentions, takes away some Hogsmeade weekends. Suddenly these jackasses aren't just picking on her for fun, they're actually angry at her because they'll think it's her fault they're being punished." He paused and scowled at the thought he had put in his own head. "They were already blatantly stealing her stuff and insulting her in the great hall, there's not a lot of room to go up from there. So they decide to get back at her, she tells Flitwick and they get a worse punishment, some of them give it up because they're sick of it. Some of them of them though, can you imagine being a 5th or 7th year Ravenclaw, and what you see as a little harmless fun starts cutting into your OWLS or NEWTS study time because some little girl doesn't have a sense of humour?"

"Merlin" Lavender breathed, "You really think it would get that far?"

Ron shot her a look, "Have you seen how arrogant some of the students here are? At least one of them would do something stupid and-" he snapped his fingers "Just like that Luna ends up in here with me, do you know what happens next?" He got three silent head shakes, "Next the school has about 5 minutes to expel the people who put her here before Harry gets involved"

"Harry Potter?" Padma asked curiously, "Why would he do anything for a Ravenclaw, and what would he even do? I know he killed that Dragon but...?"

"Because he's completely in love with her" Parvati said with an eye roll, "You really don't pay attention to anything going on around you do you?"

"I thought he had a thing for Hermione?" Lavender asked curiously, "I swear I saw them cuddling the other week"

"No Hermione has a thing for Luna and-" Parvati started to explain,

"Shut up" Padma said sharply, meeting Ron's eyes firmly, "I had no idea someone in my house was being bullied, I don't even know who Luna Lovegood is"

"Luna Lovegood, talks about animals that might not be real? Dad runs the Quibbler?" he started,

"Might not?" Lavender murmured, shutting her mouth with a click when Ron shot her a glare.

"Sorry" Padma shook her head, "If Parvati didn't drag me away from my from my studies I'd probably never look up from my books" She admitted, "Honestly, I feel terrible I never noticed I swear I would have told someone if I had"

"She would have" Parvati cut in, "she was the worst tattler when we were kids"

"Could you tell her I'm sorry?" She asked

It was only because she looked genuinely apologetic that Ron even considered it, but ultimately he couldn't begrudge her the chance, "Okay, I'll let her know you didn't know about it and you're sorry for not noticing" he shrugged, "She'll probably forgive you immediately, Luna doesn't really hold grudges"

He was turning to leave when she spoke up again, "Wait, when we arrived I heard someone say something about tutoring?"

He paused and glanced back curiously, "Yeah, what about it?"

"I was second in our grade overall last year" She explained, "I could tutor you, that way I can apologise in person"

Ron turned fully around with a furrowed brow, "Not that I'm complaining, but you realise you could just walk up to her right?"

The look Parvati shot him could have set him on fire so he backpedaled slightly, "I mean, I'd be grateful for the help?"

Padma looked away slightly and he couldn't help but notice her darker skin had taken on a red tinge.

"Good" She said firmly, "When are you free next?"

"Uh, I usually have the next two days ofF Hospital duties, so any time within there really?" He said awkwardly

"Good" She nodded, dropping off the bed onto her feet and starting to "Then I will meet you outside the great hall tomorrow after last period, we can go somewhere you feel comfortable studying and I'll tutor you" She started to walk off rapidly, refusing to look back.

The two girls she had entered with stood awkwardly for a moment before bursting into giggles and rushing after Padma without looking back.

The Next Day

As Ron waited outside the great hall feeling like he'd swallowed a swarm of bees he couldn't help but feel this was some sort of karmic justice for all the pleasure he'd taken in watching his friends bumble around each other this year. Which if that was the case he was absolutely fine with it, he wouldn't trade Harry's hilariously bewildered looks every time Hermione or Luna showed him affection for a bit of nerves. Still, with every person in the castle trying to pair off before the dance he couldn't help but feel like he was under some expectation, even though it was just an innocent tutoring session. The big problem he was having was that he kinda wanted the expectation to be true, he'd had a tiny crush on Parvati since basically the first moment he'd realised girls weren't icky. Something about her dusky skin, long dark hair and dark brown eyes just...called to him, maybe it was because she was almost the exact opposite of his families pale, red headed look. Either way he'd never worked up the nerve to say a word to her, partially due to his own insecurities but also because he found her a little too...much.

"Sorry!" Padma's voice suddenly rang out from the doors leading out towards the ground, interrupting his train of thought "Hagrid asked me to stay back and help with the Skrewts" She winced and gripped the same hand he'd healed the night before.

"That's okay" Ron said, stepping forward and giving her a concerned glance, "Did one of them tag you? Bloody monsters are a nightmare"

"Just a small burn" She tried to smile, although it came out more as a grimace, "Won't even need a burn salve"

He raised an eyebrow, "I think I'll be the judge of that" He held out his hand expectantly.

He was more than a little surprised when the her cheeks noticeably darkened and she turned slightly to present her hand like she was expecting him to bow and kiss it. Unfortunately for her Ron was about as perceptive to such things as any other teenage boy, so he simply grasped her forearm firmly and took a close look at the small red marks on her palm.

"You're right, just a 1st degree burn but you still shouldn't have to put up with the pain" he said matter of factly, pulling his wand and tapping her palm gently and murmuring an incantation under his breath, a pleasantly cool sensation spreading to encompass it.

"What was that?" She asked, poking her palm with her free hand, surprised by the lack of pain.

"After the 1st task I spent some time looking up spells to help with burns" He explained, feeling a little guilty about lying about when he started but unwilling to expose Harry's prior knowledge pf the task. "Healing them is pretty complicated magic so you're better off using potions, but you can pull the heat out of them and numb them with a pretty simple spell" he shrugged awkwardly and turned to face the stairs, "Should we head up?"

"Yeah, where are we headed?" she asked curiously, walking by his side as he led them.

"I thought about the library" He said, "But with how crazy everyone is at the moment I feel like a guy and girl doing anything together will draw too much attention"

"Ah, that's good I was a little worried about being interrupted" She agreed with an awkward giggle,

"So we're heading to a private place me and my friends have, can you keep a secret?" He asked

"Of course!" She said primly, "I'm here to help you study and apologise to Luna, I won't tell a soul about where it happens"

"Good" Ron smiled and turned suddenly, pulling a tapestry aside and walking through what appeared to be a solid stone wall.

Padma froze for a moment after he'd disappeared before stepping forward cautiously and attempting to press her hand against the wall, gasping in surprise when her arm went straight through. She jerked back when Ron's head suddenly popped back through with a curious grin.

"What's the hold up?" He asked curiously

Padma gave him a flat look before her natural curiosity took over, "Is this a secret passage?"

Ron chuckled, "Barely, this is the quick route to the 6th floor, it's pretty much a thoroughfare for us Gryffindors" He gave her a quizzical look, "Have you never seen a secret passage before?"

She blushed hotly and looked away, "I've read about them!" She protested, "I've just never bothered to go out hunting for them"

Ron laughed good naturedly and gestured her through before stepping back through himself, "Well if you ever want a tour of some of the best ones let me know" He boasted, pleased with a look of faint awe she had when she stepped through into what looked like an ordinary staircase. "We've found quite a few over the years, they're a real time saver" He paused, but buoyed by the impressed look on her face decided to continue blushing and scratching his cheek nervously, "I could take you on a tour sometime?"

There was a beat of silence and Ron instantly felt his ears heat up as he assumed the worst and opened his mouth to apologise, he was cut off before he could get a word out though.

"That would be great" Padma said said softly, smiling up at him.

"That's great!" Ron exclaimed, then coughed awkwardly and turned around again, "I mean, it should make it easier to get around, the halls are always pretty crowded"

Padma giggled at his nervousness and took a moment to look around the secret passage, surprised to see it looked like a simple windowless hallway with a large wooden door at the end. She jogged slightly to catch up to Ron who had started to move away from her but glanced back at their entrance and was surprised to see there wasn't one, the hall just ending in darkness.

"So how does this passage work?" She questioned, keen to stay on a subject he was clearly quite confident in.

"It's actually one of the trick ones" Ron admitted, grasping the doorknob of the exit and swinging the door open without stepping through, "If you walk through here you end up back where you started" He turned and gestured her back the way they came, "if you head back to the entrance though, it takes you through to an unused hallway on the sixth floor near the stairs"

"I'd read that a lot of them were unusual but are they all so counter intuitive?"

Ron chuckled as they walked back into the darkness, appearing through a seemingly empty wall and immediately turned left to head towards where he knew the stairs were.

"Honestly that one is pretty straightforward as far as they go" He admitted, smiling sheepishly "Harry and I found one in second year that only opens if you really need to pee" Padma let out a shocked laugh at that so he continued, "Hell that doesn't even compare to the one on the third floor that leads to the lake" He shook his head and gave Padma a bewildered look "Seriously you knock a pattern on a door down there and step through and suddenly you're stepping out from behind a rock down on the forest side, absolutely no clue how that works"

"That's fascinating, I wonder how to founders linked the two locations like that?" Padma mused, her eyes sparkling with fascination, "some sort of runic gate maybe? Or are did they move the point where the two places connect into some sort of side location and use the doorway as a link?"

"I have absolutely no idea" Ron said with an embarrassed smile, "That's the sort of thing you'd probably have to ask Hermione, if it helps I think I remember her saying she thought it wasn't runes when we found it?"

"That's okay!' Padma reassured, "I was just thinking out loud" she paused and glanced around, seeing no one immediately around them "actually before we get there I have to ask"

"Yeah?"

"What exactly am I going to be tutoring you on?"

"Oh! We didn't really talk about that did we, honestly we could start with almost anything" Ron ran a hand through his hair and smiled down at her awkwardly, "Aside from Healing, Quidditch and Chess I have a lot of trouble focusing on anything else. What subject are you best at?"

"Transfiguration" Padma said confidently, "Are you really having trouble with so many classes?"

Ron turned a little red and looked away, "Yeah, I'm sorry I probably should have warned you when you offered, I-"

"It's okay" Padma spoke over him with a smile, "You're smart enough to be an Apprentice at 14, it's obviously not a problem with brains so we'll just have to figure out a way to make it interesting for you" she smiled up at him sincerely, "Sound good?"

Ron looked taken aback and silently stared at her for a long moment before grinning happily, "Yeah, that sounds great"

Ron opened his mouth to say something else but closed it with a click when he heard familiar voices ahead of them, holding a finger up to shush Padma and pulling her to the side of the hall.

"-ust wanted to ask" Neville's voice sounded from around the corner in the hall Ron knew contained the tent room. "if you wanted to go to the ball with me?"

"I'm sorry Neville" Hermione's voice responded and Ron cringed visibly at the awkwardness in her tone, "It's not that you're not a great guy, I just..."

"I thought so" Neville replied resignedly, "I just had to ask, I thought you and Harry were together but when he mentioned he was going with Luna I figured I had to give it a shot"

"I appreciate the thought" Hermione said sincerely, "But I'm sorry, things are...complicated there, but I'm not planning on taking anyone to the Ball"

"It's okay, like I said I figured you'd say no but..." Ron heard his clothes rustle and assumed he must have shrugged. "Anyway, sorry to bother you"

Ron turned with slight panic when the footsteps started to head in their direction, but before he or Padma could find a place to hide the young man in question turned the corner and froze up at the sight. He opened his mouth to say something while turning steadily redder but Ron help up a finger to his lips and gestured him to come join them.

"Ron" Neville said nervously, "Look whatever you're going to say-"

"Relax" Ron said soothingly, holding his hands up to show he didn't have his wand, "I just didn't want Hermione to know I was here yet, no harm no foul I promise"

"Oh" he relaxed minutely, glancing at the girl by his side curiously, "Well that's okay, I'll head back to the common room then"

He started to step around them but Ron held up his hand to stop him taking a deep breath and looking deeply conflicted.

"Okay so if you ever tell anyone I said this I'll deny it and then make your life hell" Ron started, getting a very severe look from his companion and a nervous look from Neville, "Ginny told me yesterday" He paused and clarified, "Okay Ginny threatened me yesterday that if someone asked her to the ball and I ruined it for her she'd curse my bollocks off, so I'm pretty sure no one has yet"

Neville shared an incredulous glance with Padma, "...Are you telling me to ask out your sister?"

Ron looked like he'd swallowed a lemon, "I'm informing you that my little sister is available for this dance, because you're a good guy and I trust you not to try and take advantage." He said tightly, as if he was hating every second of what he was saying. "Not that you'd survive the attempt" He muttered.

Neville brightened considerably and looked towards the direction of the common room, "I did consider asking her, but I didn't want to cross any lines with you...or the twins" he shuddered at the thought.

"I'll talk to the twins" Ron promised

"Thanks Ron" Neville said cheerfully, seemingly completely recovered from his previous rejection. "I'll go ask her now, thanks again!"

Ron waved him on and turned back towards the corner he'd come from but paused at the approving look on Padma's face.

"...What?" he asked self consciously.

"Nothing" She said sweetly, "we're almost there right?"

"Almost where?" a cool voice spoke up from beside them and Ron's shoulder sunk, turning to see Hermione had come around the corner as well and was looking at Padma disapprovingly.

5 Minutes Later

Padma was trying to look as nervous as she reasonably should considering the truly foul look Hermione was shooting at her but she couldn't help but stare around the room instead. The tastefully decorated living room that she'd been invited into by stepping into first a rather heavily warded empty classroom and then through a tent flap was understandably fascinating to her. Sat around the living room table on two large couches she and Ron were sat on one side separated by a large cushion, across from them the odd love triangle she'd been told about were sat so closely they were almost touching. Luna in the centre with a dreamy smile on her face, to her left Hermione was almost pressed up against the smaller girls side with a grim look directed at Padma. On the other side Harry was watching her curiously with an arm slung behind both girls on the top of the couch, glancing at Ron occasionally as well as if expecting him to explain her presence. She'd known from what Ron had said yesterday that Luna was bunking somewhere else, she'd thought maybe in a teachers quarters or on one of the other houses girls dorms.

"...Do any of the teachers know you're staying here Luna?" She asked curiously

Around her the group all snorted almost in unison, Luna looking particularly amused by the question and Hermione leaning forward to say something, only stopped by Luna subtly pressing her leg against hers.

"Professor Flitwick is aware of it yes" Luna said calmly,

"Oh, good" Padma said lamely, then shook her head and, with an encouraging look from Ron met Luna's silvery eyes. "Sorry, that isn't what I came here for, I wanted to apologise"

"You'd be the first" Hermione muttered, only subsiding when Luna shot her a fondly exasperated look.

"I didn't realise what was going on, but that's no excuse' Padma explained, "I should have been paying enough attention to what was happening around me to at least notice if it was as widespread as Ron says it was. So I'm sorry"

"...You didn't notice?" Harry asked curiously

Padma blushed slightly but didn't let Luna's eye contact go, "Honestly I didn't even know who you were when Ron told me your name. I know that sounds bad but I just...don't pay much attention to people"

"It's okay" Luna said simply, smiling at the nervous girl, "I don't remember you doing or saying anything, and even if I did you're apologising and that's good enough for me"

"Thank you" Padma said gratefully, "If there's anything I can do make up for it?"

Luna shook her head, "No thank you, as long as you're sincere we're okay"

Padma brightened considerably and the mood of the room lightened slightly, even Hermione's dark scowl fading into a much more reasonable frown.

"Well" Harry clapped his hands, "I'm glad we did this, but I have a session with Professor Flitwick to get to so I've got to head off" He stood and smiled at Padma politely, "It was nice to meet you outside class Padma"

"Likewise" She replied with a smile, "You don't mind me tutoring Ron here?"

"Tutoring?" Hermione asked, suddenly laser focused on the conversation, "You didn't mention needing tutoring, I would have been happy to help"

"Yeah Padma overheard Madame Pomfrey recommending I find one yesterday, she's a little worried about my usual class grades" He explained, "And I would have asked you, but this year with your new apprenticeship and the tournament" He shook his head, "You've already got 2 or 3 really important things to focus on right now, I didn't want to add another one on top" He gave her a significant look and flicked his eyes at Harry, who had walked into one of the bedrooms to change into other clothes.

"Oh" Hermione said lamely, looking a little abashed, "Your studies are still important though, I could have-"

"Hermione if I hadn't found someone to help I would have asked you eventually" He soothed, "Luckily Padma just happened to turn up right as I needed someone" He gave her an embarrassed smile. "Thanks again for the offer, I really wasn't looking forward to actually asking people for help"

"My pleasure!" Padma said happily, already pulling an empty roll of parchment out of her bookbag and laying it on the table with a quill. "Transfiguration first right?"

Ron nodded agreeably, "Yeah, thanks" He shot Hermione a fond look, "Trust me, I'm well aware of everything you have on your plate at the moment, and on that note..."

There was a beat of silence broken by Harry leaving his master bedroom clad in a loose set of shorts and a t-shirt, his new pale brown wand visibly strapped to his right arm. Ron chuckled under his breath at the faintly confused look Hermione had given him when he trailed off turn to vivid embarrassment and a glare he was sure would have been terrifying to someone who didn't know her so well. Padma thankfully was still fully focused on setting up some sort of perfect study spot so Ron was temporarily spared from finding out whether or not she'd stare at his best mate like Luna and Hermione currently were. That is to say like he was a perfectly seasoned steak and they hadn't eaten in days.

"Have fun with your study session" Harry called as he walked by them, and Ron felt a twinge of jealousy when Padma looked up and seemed to do a double take at the sight of him.

"Wait a second" Hermione called out, "I was wondering if Luna and I could come?"

Harry quirked an eyebrow curiously, "You want to come watch me train?"

Luna was nodding furiously from her spot on the couch, but thankfully it was hidden behind the backrest so Hermione simply shot her a look before answering.

"Well you said last time that Flitwick was trying to cram as many distractions as he could in right?" She reasoned, forcibly ignoring the pink in her cheeks. "Luna and I are going to be carving runes into buttons and sewing them into cloth tonight anyway which we can do from anywhere with a table, we could be another distraction?"

"He did say he wanted to add another level" Harry mused, "Are you sure? He's got me reading through Shakespeare's Sonnets at the moment, it will be pretty loud?"

Padma's eye's had finally moved from the table to the odd scene in front of her at this point and she was simply staring agape as the scene unfolded. Beside her Ron shoved a sharp twinge of jealousy aside when he saw her eyes follow Harry's well defined arm when he ran his hand through his hair self consciously.

"That's fine" Hermione exclaimed, "We can just use a one way silencing charm if it gets too distracting" She said reassuringly.

"Well if you're sure" Harry said, but before he had even finished the pair were up and moving past him, tugging him out of the portrait hole as they went.

"Excellent, have fun you two" Hermione called over her shoulder, "Make sure to lock up if you leave before we get back Ron!"

The young man in question waved halfheartedly and steeled himself for the wave of questions he knew were coming from his new tutor. The incredulous look she gave him spoke volumes but to her credit she shook it off almost immediately.

"...So, Transfiguration?"

\----------

"When you were describing it to me this isn't quite how I pictured it" Luna said quietly, her eyes flicking up periodically to the spectacle across the room from her while her hands worked carefully on a button with a carving knife.

"Mmm there really aren't any words for it" Hermione agreed, delicately threading a tiny bit of magically treated silver through the inseam of the coat she'd had brought in by her teacher.

The pair were currently putting the opening touches onto a design Hermione had come up with following the first task, although it was simply taking an existing rune combination and applying it to an unusual item. Usually the robes Auror's wore were enchanted to absorb a certain degree of damage as well as mitigating the effect of spellfire. Hermione had taken the idea and with Luna's help reverse engineered the concept so it could be applied to other items, after all if Harry needed defensive robes he could always buy them. When he was in the muggle world though even the bracelet she had for him wouldn't help with everything. Hence the muggle overcoat she'd asked her father to send her that was currently in pieces all over Professor Flitwick's desk having a careful array of runes carved and sewn into it piece by piece.

Flitwick had been delighted to add another facet to Harry's training and if the knowing smile on his face had been any indication he knew exactly how distracting their presence would be. To maximise the effect he'd brought Luna and Hermione to his desk and let them make themselves comfortable with their enchanting equipment while he strolled around the room tossing spells at Harry. Harry meanwhile was running in place, the floor seeming to fall away without letting him proceed, shielding randomly directed spells and reciting sonnets on request from a book magically floating at head height. But most frustratingly he was forced to keep the girl he was now officially going on a date with and his best friend who he'd been feeling funny about for months in his eyeline. Which also wouldn't have been so bad if Professor Flitwick wasn't pulling as much enjoyment out of his student's embarrassment as he possibly could.

"Number 18 again please Harry, and do try to keep your eyes up this time" Flitwick said with a grin, tossing a wink at the girls currently occupying his desk.

Harry stumbled slightly on the magically unchanging floor but managed to keep his eyes focused on the window between the girls and started to recite the sonnet from memory.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" He said loudly and firmly, copying the tone and oration he'd used for Beowulf and caught a stinging hex to the foot for his trouble.

"That's better, but it's a sonnet Harry not an epic! It should be personal, you can't just belt it out like you're talking to an audience!" Flitwick chortled, "And I know you're used to shielding specific effects or multiple spells but your shields aren't covering anything from the knee down, either create them at the location you're guarding or make them bigger to cover everything"

Harry took a moment to take settle his breathing without breaking stride, managing to catch the next spell aimed for his legs with a shield that stretched from the floor to near the ceiling.

"Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May" Harry tried to lower his voice to a more even tone, but ended up sounding more conversational.

"Better, the shield has more coverage and doesn't appear any less powerful. But your voice?" Flitwick darted into Harry's blind spot and fired off a trio of mild stingers that drew a muffled groan from the running student. "You're so focused on it you're losing focus on your surrounding, and it doesn't even sound real! It's a poem expressing Love Harry, not a conversational piece about the weather!"

"I haven't exactly got a tonne of experience to draw on here sir!" Harry complained, blocking the next spell on instinct even though he hadn't seen Flitwick cast it. "What does expressing love even sound like?"

"Target!" Flitwick called, conjuring a red ball in midair that exploded into powder a fraction of a second later from the force of Harry's silent piercer.

"I haven't a great deal of experience myself" Flitwick admitted, "I've heard some truly beautiful renditions, but I've never been one for romance myself" The teacher ducked behind a desk to break his eyeline and flicked his wand up. "Hostage, two targets!"

A green ball appeared floating up at the ceiling while two more appeared on either side of Harry within arms reach and far too close to hit both before he got tagged with a follow up spell. Moving on instinct Harry lashed out and backhanded the left ball away, blowing the other from the air silently before turning his wand to the green ball and carefully swishing and flicking his wand.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" He called, catching the suddenly falling 'hostage' and carefully lowering it to the ground.

Unfortunately the first ball he'd smacked away chose that moment to reveal what happened when he didn't destroy them quickly enough, slamming into his side like a bludger and leaving a red ink stain. Harry grunted in pain and stumbled, falling to his knees and letting out a gasp as the wind was driven from him, although he did reflexively blow the attacking ball to pieces when it came back around for another hit.

"Harry!?" Hermione called, half-standing before she was stopped by the Professor's voice.

"Not to worry Miss Granger" He reassured her, "It simply knocked the wind out of him, he'll be back up in a moment"

"Are you sure?" Luna asked with a concerned frown, "That sounded like it hurt"

"M'okay!" Harry gasped out, sucking in a few deep lungfuls of air and struggling back to his feet. "If it didn't hurt I wouldn't learn, shouldn't have assumed a punch would take it out"

"Absolutely not" Flitwick agreed, "You struck it well considering the angle, but never forget that we wizards and witches are far more resilient than muggles" he gestured to the red mark on Harry's side, "That hit for example would have broken a muggle's ribs easily, but on you it will only bruise. If you're going to throw a punch never expect it to do more than distract someone and follow up immediately with magic"

"Yeah" Harry breathed out stretching and wincing at the ache in his side. "I'll remember next time"

"Good, now get back to it" The Professor smiled cheerily, "No breaks"

"Professor, surely after-" Hermione started to object.

"It's alright Hermione" Harry said with an affectionate smile, "If I can't work through a sore rib there isn't much point in all these other distractions"

"I-" Hermione started again, but this time Luna was the one to step in by grabbing her hand and tugging her back down into her chair gently.

"You won't talk him out of it" She said gently, "That's just how he is, you know that"

"Yeah" Hermione breathed out frustratedly and sat with a humph, "I know"

Harry smiled gratefully at the small blonde and started to jog again, the stone at his feet falling away at the same rate as he picked up speed until he was running smoothly.

"Same sonnet, continue!" Flitwick called, tossing a bolt of white light at him and watching in satisfaction when it shattered into sparks on another shield.

At the table Hermione was watching the renewed training with frustration, her understanding of Harry's nature warring with her need to help and the ache she felt deep in her chest whenever he was hurt. Beside her Luna was watching Harry as well with a small frown on her lips, the illicit thrill she'd gotten before at the sight of his sweat soaked shirt clinging to him burned away by the occasional wince he gave when he moved.

"And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines" Harry tried to start up again, still sounding stilted as his eyes drilled into the window behind them.

"There is one way we could help him" Luna murmured quietly, glancing at Hermione sidelong.

"What's that?" Hermione asked, roughly pulling on a thread and almost tearing it out.

"Move your chair over here" Luna ordered absently, shuffling her own chair into the centre of the desk as well and removing the space they'd given each other so they wouldn't interrupt each others work.

"And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometimes declines" Harry's voice gained a tinge of confusion when Luna suddenly took up half the space he was using to to focus on and ruined his attempt to block out the fact that he was being watched.

The distraction cost him a splash of white that tore a hole in the right side of his shirt but left the skin underneath completely untouched, a simply garment rending spell Flitwick had included for fun. In spite of the burst of embarrassment he felt at a chunk of his abs being visible he still paradoxically felt some small part of him relax with the reassurance that the watcher was someone he trusted.

"What are we doing?" Hermione asked curiously, shuffling her own chair over to rest besides Luna's and pulling the strip of fabric she'd been working on with her.

"We're giving Harry something to focus on, now act like you can't tell he's watching and give me a hug" Luna ordered with a dreamy smile directed at nothing in particular.

Hermione wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so in spite of the fact she wasn't entirely sure how this was going to help Harry she gently lay her silver thread down and wrapped her arm around Luna's waist. Luna simply continued as she had been, holding a large button in one hand and a small carving blade in the other while her only reaction to the sudden embrace was to lean comfortably into Hermione's shoulder and sigh contentedly. Unsure what exactly she should be doing with one arm in use Hermione opened the reference book they'd been using and studiously pretended she couldn't hear what was happening in front of her.

"By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade" Harry's voice grew softer at the sight, the familiar sight of the two simply together stirring something warm and happy inside him. "Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st"

Professor Flitwick's face lit up at the sudden change in tone, taking note of the reason with a glance and shaking his head in amusement without letting up a barrage of harmless spells. To his shock in spite of Harry's visibly single minded focus on the pair in front of him his movements smoothed out and his shielding grew stronger and faster, often having the shield up before the spell even left his wand. His grin grew wider and he pushed himself harder, pushing what spells he was willing to cast against his pupil to their limits of effectiveness, a swirl of multicoloured magic that shattered into nothing on arced shields of transparent power.

Harry was reacting to the attacks around him purely on instinct, the endless drills he'd been through in this room finally culminating in an almost subconscious use of his shield charm. He felt almost as if he was in a trance as his eyes traced the delicate features of the two girls sat across from him, neither looking up from their tasks as he stared to his relief. He felt a flutter of something he couldn't define as he traced their faces, Luna's elfin features and high cheekbones combined with her pale blonde hair contrasting with Hermione's softer features and dark brown hair. He was embarrassed to say his eyes didn't stop there, running down Luna's slender neck and across to Hermione's barely visible collar bone. Before they could drift lower he felt their eyes on him again and he jerked his sight back up to meet them, surprised to find silver and brown eyes both connecting with his own.

He drew in a breath in a way that had nothing to do with his running when he saw the emotion reflected in both of their eyes, a warmth and depth he almost felt like falling into. It was that moment, looking from silver to brown eyes and back that he finally identified the fluttering, swirling emotion he'd been feeling all too often lately that sat in his chest and exploded into being whenever he was with them.

He held Luna's eyes, "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see" and then moved to Hermione's "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee"

He was in love, with Luna's good humor and airy happiness that could fill a room with joy, with Hermione's subtle wit and steady reliability and the way she made him feel like she would support him to the end of the earth. Their insatiable curiosity and brilliance that sometimes made him sit back in awe that two people who approached life in such different ways could both seem like the smartest person in any room. Hermione's simple beauty, made all the more so by the tiny imperfections she tried to hide because she couldn't see herself the way he saw her. Luna's more refined elegance that she completely threw away every chance she got to play in mud and rain and colour, that made her all the more alluring by her irreverence.

He was in love with his best friends, both of them, and now he had no idea what he was supposed to do to avoid breaking all their hearts.

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AN: The stage is set for the Yule Ball! Sorry about the delay on this one, I just got a new job and i've been studying like crazy to make sure I do a good job. Bright side I have a week until I officially start and I'm as studied up as I can be, so the next chapter should be out in good time. Bad news is after I do start I'm gonna be busy so this 2 to 3 week wait might become more usual.

On the chapter as you can see I picked a direction for Ron's date based on some very helpful reviews from a lot of very helpful people. Just to be clear I haven't actually decided if this will be Ron's permanent ship, of the 3 or so I'm seriously considering though this was the easiest to set up on short notice. For now though this is the way it's heading, Harry finally had his revelation! I considered making him clueless right up until the confession but I thought him finally realising and freaking out about it while having no idea he had nothing to worry about was funny and gave me something to work with at the Ball. Plus describing how and why he feels about the pair always gives me warm and fuzzies. Next up we'll be starting from the Yule Ball and if I can squeeze it in we'll end with the start of the second task.

Hope you've got your insulin ready for next chapter!


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